


Young Light

by lait_tea1



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, M!Kris, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Seventh Platoon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26122315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lait_tea1/pseuds/lait_tea1
Summary: Altea Castle opens its gates for a hundred young men and women to train to become knights of Altea. Kris was certain his grandfather had prepared him fully for the strenuous task. Nobody had warned him of the other challenges that he would face in his daily life of a knight-in-training, but at least, the most important part was that they hadn't been thrown out of the castle yet, right?An extended novelisation of the Prologue chapters in FE12, revolving around the Seventh Platoon and the trials and tribulations they face as eager young squires.
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm back again, this time with a project I hope to work on for a longer period of time than my usual one-off fics. As stated before, this is a novelisation of the Prologue chapters in New Mystery and will revolve around the Seventh Platoon. (It will include a lot of dialogue, extra scenes, and of course, descriptions of battle that I will hopefully improve at.)
> 
> In this fic, I hope to simply give my favourite group of characters a little more personality, and maybe – hopefully – remove a couple of the issues people have had with Kris in FE12. At least, he won't be as much of a Gary Stu here. (I know Kris's existence in FE12 is quite controversial, but as this is just a story I am writing for fun, I would prefer any of those opinions be kept elsewhere.) I'll also be making revisions to previous chapters as I go along. I'm hoping this will be a chill, lighthearted project that I can work on once in a while, so consistent updates are not guaranteed.
> 
> With all that aside, thank you for checking this out, and I hope you enjoy the story!

_Altea Castle – home of Prince Marth._ Kris thought, feeling his chest swell with pride at the very sight of the massive building rising up past the city’s stone-brick buildings. The huge castle was the first thing Kris spotted several hours ago on his journey from his quaint hometown of Sera to this very city. Now that it towered over him, he could definitely agree with his grandfather about its magnificence.

“…Grandfather.” Kris said aloud, exuberant mood dying down as he paused to reminisce. His sword, a familiar weight by his side, was a parting gift from his late grandfather MacLear, formerly an esteemed knight of Altea. _Now it’s my turn to give back to the people of Altea as a knight, just like my grandfather._

His grandfather’s very words were why he was here today, in fact: the only day that Altea Castle opened its doors for candidates to become the next generation of Altean knights.

“I won’t disappoint you, Grandfather.” He said, his hand coming to rest upon the sword’s hilt. He could almost hear his grandfather’s stern yet warm voice in his head: _Then don’t be late for the recruitment, boy. I’ve trained you for all your life for this. If you end up missing the chance because you’re too busy gaping at the front doors, then you’d better not call me your grandfather._

“Right, right,” he answered his own thought, a hint of fond irritation speckling his words. However, it was hard to remain exasperated when he was finally here, in Altea, for the very thing he had – as his grandfather always told him – been training his whole life for. He would’ve practically bounded towards the castle’s massive gates if not for the various glances he was receiving for loitering in the middle of the stone-paved path, hand on his sword, so he quelled his excitement with a deep breath, drew back his shoulders and walked purposefully towards the thick wooden gates of the castle.

The lone guard studied him closely as he approached. Kris cleared his throat. “I’m here for the recruitment. I am Kris, from Sera village.” Then, as an afterthought – and mainly because he could hear his grandfather nagging him again in his head – he delivered a short, quick bow. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Ah, I see. From Sera village, you say?” The guard looked taken aback, but quickly recomposed herself. “Isn’t that where the knight MacLear retired to? I hear he had to look after his grandchildren, or something of the sort…”

“Uh, yes. That’s… that’s me. He was my grandfather.”

“Oh!” The guard lifted her helmet to squint at Kris, then quickly nodded and stepped aside to let him through. “You look much like him, or at least, what I’ve heard of him… and ah–! Apologies for my rudeness, I didn’t realise he’d already passed…”

“Right…” Kris stepped past the rambling guard and offered them a polite half-smile. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just be… going now.”

“Best of luck!”

With that behind him – literally and figuratively – Kris strode forwards, mustering as much confidence as his growing apprehensiveness would allow, and headed towards the steps leading up towards the actual castle itself with his head held high in a manner that was certainly to be befitting of a soon-to-be knight.

The next thing he knew, something thudded against his chest and suddenly there was someone crumpled on the ground in front of him.

“Eek–! Ah, I – I’m sorry!”

“Whoa, are you alright?” Kris immediately dropped to a knee to offer the stranger a hand; a petite girl dressed in purple, and likely as frail as she looked, seeing as she looked more winded than he felt for having run into him.

Instead of replying, she immediately burst into stuttered apologies. “I–I’m sorry! I was in a hurry, a-and I didn’t see you, and…”

“It’s fine.” Kris knelt to sweep up her fallen belongings, seeing as she seemed too rattled to even remember to pick them up. He handed the bag back to her, responding with a smile and a nod at her mumbled “thank you”.

“…excuse me, did you come here to become an Altean knight as well?”

“Yes, I – huh, wait. As… well?” Kris blinked and gave her a once-over; short purple hair, pink scarf and the garb of someone who didn’t just look like any other city-goer. _So she’s here for the recruitment too?_

Realising that the girl’s gaze was still on him, he quickly cast aside his own pondering – and doubts – for the time being. “Yes – I came here all the way from Sera village when I heard they were recruiting new knights.”

“Sera village…?”

Kris briefly wondered whether she would ask him about his grandfather, too – but the girl simply smiled politely. “It sounds like a lovely place to live. Oh–! I completely forgot to ask for your name…!”

That sounded like as good as an invitation as any, and it seemed like the other people in the courtyard – who also seemed to be other aspiring knights – were already engaged in conversation with each other, so he might as well. “The name’s Kris. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Ah, how dignified–! Er, ahem…” The girl quickly mimicked Kris’s half-bow. “We’re here for the same reason, it seems. My name is Katarina. I came because I wish to serve Prince Marth.” Her smile faltered as she cast her gaze around at the other squires in the courtyard. “Oh, but there are so many other hopefuls here… how are we meant to compete against all of them?”

_I don’t think that’ll be that difficult,_ Kris thought dryly, watching two people – who appeared to be cavaliers, judging from the horses standing next to them – bicker next to the steps. Actually, it seemed less like bickering and more like one of them was making some kind of declarative speech in the general direction of the other squires on the courtyard, though for what reason Kris didn’t know. It was hard to tell what exactly they were saying, but whatever it was, the one in green suddenly strode off, his horse in tow.

“Hey, wait up…!” With a cry, the cavalier in blue bolted after the other – then abruptly spun around, ran back to where his horse was still standing patiently (most likely used to such behaviour, Kris presumed, seeing as it didn’t look particularly agitated), grabbed its reins and hurried after his friend at a much slower pace.

“There’s no doubt those two were knight candidates like us.” Kris said, brow furrowing. _Hm… the others seem too carefree about this, though. Am I really in the right place?_

Before he could voice his disappointment, Katarina suddenly spoke up. “We should follow them, Kris. I think Sir Jagen has something to say to all of us…”

_I suppose I am – it’s hard to miss the capital city, even for me._ Kris brought his attention away from staring after the two cavaliers and spared a glance around the courtyard. It did seem emptier than before…

“We shouldn’t arrive late, Kris. Let’s go…!”

-x-x-x-

Kris found himself gathered in a wide expanse of grass surrounded by hushed chatter. There had to be dozens of other people, probably about the same age as him, clustered around on the field, alongside horses and weapons and everything in between for a makeshift army.

Katarina hovered by his side, eyes darting to and fro nervously. “Oh my… there are so many people here. How am I ever…”

“Everyone!” A voice boomed, cutting off whatever Katarina was going to say. “You are to be the future of Altea, and this disorder is a disgrace to Prince Marth!” Almost immediately, as if drawn into place by some invisible force, the crowd shuffled into orderly lines, their chatter dying down at once.

Standing – no, towering – before them was a man in purple armour. Despite the evident signs of his age, he had such a commanding presence that there wasn’t even a whisper amongst the previously chaotic crowd. His stony expression and downturned mouth further emphasised that fact even further.

_That must be Sir Jagen._ Kris thought with a faint swell of excitement, past the anticipatory thudding of his heart. He had heard many tales of the knight from his grandfather (as they had been close friends, apparently), ranging from squirehood to their days in the War of Shadows. Kris hadn’t really thought about what to expect, but the fact that Sir Jagen had the same commanding aura as his grandfather did make him feel more at ease, for some reason. _Maybe it’s the familiarity of it all…_

“Altea’s gates have opened today so that we may test you as potential knights.” Jagen addressed the group, expression stern. “If there is one thing I must make clear, and it is something that should be obvious to all of you; knights will be chosen by their ability, not by their blood.”

Kris found himself nodding along in agreement. _I don’t want to become a knight just because I’m the grandson of MacLear. If I become a knight, it’ll be because of my own hard work and training. And I know I’ve worked hard enough to surpass any trials they might throw at us…_

“We have gathered a hundred men and women here, and only a handful of you will succeed.” Jagen continued, casting his gaze out across the crowd. Kris could almost feel Jagen’s piercing eyes settle on him for a moment, and he lifted his chin and stared determinedly back.

“T-this is nerve-wracking.” Katarina suddenly whispered.

Kris shot Katarina a wordless nod that was partially in acknowledgement and partially as a warning. Thankfully, Jagen hadn’t seemed to notice their exchange, and was still going on with his speech.

“Apprentices, this will be your first test! You will be facing real Altean knights in combat! We’ve provided training weapons, so pick them up here. You will have to hold your own for three minutes against your opponent in a one-on-one duel, while I will judge each candidate on their abilities.”

A thrill of excitement ran through him. _Finally! This is what I’ve been training for…!_

“Huh?! We have to fight? T-this could be a problem…”

Kris turned to Katarina. “A problem?”

“W-well, you see, I’ve been training to become a strategist, but this…”

“I thought you were here to become a knight?”

“Ah, well, I thought – it’s part of –”

“Hurry up!” Someone barked at them, and Kris realised that somehow they had been pushed to the front of the line that was beginning to form behind them.

“You have to participate in the test, though – and I don’t think Sir Jagen will allow any exceptions.” He hissed, shooting said knight a wary glance. Katarina bit her lip and followed his gaze. “I… I have to – I can’t _not_ become a knight, o-otherwise…!”

“Just do your best.” Kris said encouragingly, trying his best not to pay attention to Jagen’s gaze on him. “I’m sure he’ll understand if you tell him afterwards, and then maybe he’ll find another solution for that?”

“I…” Katarina hesitated, then let out a defeated sigh. “I – I don’t really know how to use traditional weapons…”

He did his best to ignore the concern coiling in his chest at that. “Look, just – try your hardest now, right? Then even if you might not pass now, later we’ll go to him and talk…”

“You – blue hair! Your name?” Someone suddenly barked.

“Ah,” Kris quickly tore his gaze away from Katarina. “Uh, you’re talking to me? My name’s Kris, sir – from Sera village!”

“I’ll be your opponent, so pick up a weapon and face me! And girl in purple, behind you – you’re against the knight in the battlefield to my left. This way!”

“You’ll do fine,” Kris urged, patting Katarina on the shoulder. “Just pick up any of the weapons and just do your best to hit them. I believe in you!”

“You…” Katarina swallowed nervously and nodded. “A-alright, I’ll… try.”

“Good luck.” He shot her a warm smile and moved to pick up a sword from the pile of wooden weapons that one of the knights had deposited earlier nearby. Katarina flashed him a final nervous glance before picking up a training lance and heading in the direction of the other Altean knight.

With that issue out of the way for now, Kris stepped into the makeshift battlefield – a large square drawn into the dirt – and faced his opponent; a lance-wielding soldier. _Hmm… his reach is much longer than mine, seeing as he has a lance – I should take care to avoid his lance and get in close enough so he can’t use it. I may have the disadvantage at first, but as long as I remember what my grandfather told me…_

He levelled the wooden sword before himself.

“Begin!”

Kris lunged. The soldier blocked at once, but a twist of his blade sent the soldier staggering,

_Clearly underestimating me,_ he thought with a spark of pride, leaping back to avoid the soldier’s wild swing He looked up and made eye contact with Jagen; the knight was watching over the three battles going on from where he had been standing before, but with a faint swell of pride in his chest, he noted that Jagen’s eyes were on him – and that his expression had twisted into mild surprise for just a second, before settling into his usual frown.

_Good. I need to prove to him that I can hold my own._

The clack of wood against wood rang out again as he brought his sword against the shaft of the soldier’s lance in a downward arc. Drawing back almost at once, he ducked and swung again, dealing a solid blow to his opponent’s iron breastplate and pressing forward with several well-practiced slashes towards the soldier’s chest.

The soldier suddenly whipping the butt of his lance around to catch Kris in the side was certainly not something he was used to during his spars with his grandfather, though. With a grunt, Kris felt the breath being knocked out of him in a single blow, and he stumbled, lurching to the side. Thankfully, he managed to catch himself from falling, though his ribs were already beginning to ache.

He spared another glance towards Jagen again, who had also thankfully not seen his blunder. However, he seemed to be staring intensely at another candidate, so Kris followed his gaze; and felt his heart jump as he watched Katarina narrowly evade the swing of her opponent’s lance with her lance clutched tightly in both hands.

Before he could witness any more, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye again and only just managed to lift his sword in time to block what would’ve been another bruising blow.

_I really hope Katarina’s alright…_ Kris tried to glance over at Katarina to see how she was doing again, but all he could catch was a blur of purple to his right before he felt his opponent pull back his lance to deliver another strike, which Kris deflected again.

It seemed like all too long before Jagen called “Time’s up! Those next in line, step forwards and prepare yourselves to spar with the knights. To those who’ve completed the test, put down your training weapons with the others and wait by the tree over there.”

Immediately, Kris spun around and rushed to where Katarina was; only to see Jagen approach her as well. He hesitated, coming to a halt in the middle of the battlefield.

“Move along now.” His previous opponent called, catching notice of him hovering there. Kris pursed his lips together and reluctantly complied.

Almost as soon as he’d put down his wooden weapon with the pile of other weapons and moved to approach the tree Jagen had pointed out, he heard someone call his name.

“Katarina?” He turned around to see her hurrying towards him. “What did he say? You didn’t…”

“Oh, it’s… it’s nothing,” Katarina said. “Sir Jagen just told me that I should… focus more on attacking my opponent rather than just dodging, but, er, I – I don’t think I failed! At least, he didn’t tell me I failed, so I think…!”

“That’s amazing! I knew you could do it!” A wave of relief rushed through him; seeing Katarina’s exuberant expression really did boost his spirits. At least, until his ribs suddenly reminded him that they had, in fact, taken quite the beating from a wooden staff.

“Oof… I haven’t trained with Grandfather for too long.” Kris groaned, doubling over for a second to rub at his aching side. “My body’s gotten too used to not being hit back during training sessions.”

“Are you alright?!”

“Oh, no, I’m fine – just bruised, that’s all. It’ll heal in a few days.” He straightened up again and smiled at Katarina, just to reassure her. “Did your opponent get a hit on you at all?”

“Ah, well… it’s a lot easier to dodge when you’re not really focusing on hitting back.” Katarina chuckled nervously, clasping her hands behind her back. “And… I guess I’m kind of used to it. I think the fact he couldn’t hit me at all was the only reason why Sir Jagen didn’t throw me out of the recruitment programme right that second…”

“You did well; besides, the reason we’re here is to train to become fully fledged knights. You have quite a lot of time to train and learn all the skills you need to wield a weapon.” Kris finally deemed the shaded patch of grass underneath the tree to be a good spot to sit, and he gratefully sank to the floor. “And I nearly forgot – did you ask him about becoming a strategist for Altea?”

“Ah… no, I completely forgot.” Katarina murmured, following suit. “I – I might ask him later, when he’s less busy… but never mind about me. Earlier, I – well, I noticed you, and… y-you’re really good at fighting! You said your grandfather trained with you…?”

“My grandfather was one of the best knights in all of Altea.” Kris tipped his head back to gaze up at the clear, blue sky. “He trained me all my life to become a knight here in Altea. ‘Kris, become the sword of Altea’, he used to say. ‘Acquire an unbreakable strength and devotion.’” He studied the single white cloud passing languidly over their heads with a faint smile. “I’m hoping to be just like him, and become a knight Altea can be proud of.”

“Ah… that’s such a noble cause. I wish – I wish that I had a purpose as noble as yours…”

“We’re all here for the same reason though, aren’t we?” Kris shot her a reassuring smile. “To serve under Prince Marth to our fullest. And don’t worry too much about this first test – even if you might not be as well-practiced with a sword or lance as every other candidate in the beginning, I’m sure if we work hard and train to become the best of the best, Prince Marth would most definitely accept you into his ranks too.”

“I… thank you.” Katarina’s distant expression faded, and she met his gaze with a shy smile. “Y-you’re… really kind, Kris. I… I’m glad I ran into you today. A-and I’m – I’m sorry I’ve been such a burden on you, even though we just met…”

“I’m glad I met you here too.” Kris cast his gaze out towards the other knight candidates. “And – well, I’ve not really had many friends my age back in Sera, so… I guess I should thank you too, huh?”

“M-me? Oh, well… I – I suppose…”

“That calls it even, huh?” Kris chuckled. “So no more of worrying about whether you’re a burden or not. And hey, you said you were training to be a strategist – maybe you can teach me something, too. And maybe I can teach you how to wield a sword, if you want…”

“Ah… that’d be nice – I think… I’d like that.”

“It’s settled, then.” Kris watched as one of the candidates go flying off his horse with a distant scream. “Well, you know, if it might comfort you – at least our testing didn’t end like that person’s did, huh?”

“Who – oh!” Katarina blinked. “Oh my, I hope they’re alright…”

“It looks like they’re fine.” Kris glanced back over at her. “So… try not to worry so much, got it? Because – because whatever might happen next… I’ll be by your side. And even if Sir Jagen does try to throw you out, well – I’ll stop him, no matter what?”

Katarina giggled softly. “I… can’t imagine how you would do that…”

“At least you’re laughing, huh?” Kris smiled and gave her a nudge. “So it’s settled.”

“Huh?”

“You know, that we’ll help each other out here, and that we’ll stick by each other’s side. That is what friends do, right?”

“I – we’re… friends?”

“I did say that before, didn’t I?” Kris said, turning towards her. “Besides, I have a feeling that we’ll be working with each other for quite some time, so…”

“I hope that’ll be the case too…” Katarina smiled back. “I – I really do hope so.”

-x-x-x-

They sat around under the tree for a while longer. Gradually, more and more of the candidates came to loiter around after completing the test, gathering in small groups to converse about the previous test.

Finally, as the last couple of candidates completed the test, Jagen called everyone back to the original testing area. To Kris’s surprise, he noticed a new figure amongst the Altean knights; blue hair and cape, adorned with accents of gold. Kris blinked and did a double-take; _Isn’t that…?_

Jagen cleared his throat, and everyone seemed to stand up straighter, if that was even possible. “Prince Marth wishes to address everyone who passed the test. Sire, if you’d please.”

Even the air itself had stilled as Marth inclined his head politely at Jagen and took a step forward to address the crowd.

“I humbly thank you all for coming.” His voice rang over the ranks of enraptured squires, in a way that invited respect rather commanded but still; not even a person dared to utter a word in fear of being discourteous in the face of Prince Marth himself.

_I can’t believe I’m standing here, face-to-face with Prince Marth, hero who brought an end to the War of Shadows. I can only hope to grow to become a capable knight, as worthy of serving him as my grandfather had been…_

“Everyone. I’m truly happy that so many came to help shoulder Altea’s future.” Marth continued, voice warm and a stark contrast to Jagen’s harsh strictness. “With the war over, peace has returned. However, peace isn’t something we can simply take for granted: it is my duty, as ruler, to risk my life to protect it.”

His gaze swept over the crowd. Kris felt a shiver of anticipation go through him as Marth paused to regard the crowd with the regal poise befitting of a prince.

“Alone, I am powerless. So, everyone – from now on, I want you to lend me your power, as my knights.” Marth’s words seemed to have held a trance over everyone, even after he’d stepped back to allow Jagen to take over again.

“That was… captivating.” Katarina whispered, voice hushed with awe.

“Yes, it was.” Kris nodded, finally letting out the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. “It only reminds me; we have to do our best as his loyal knights, so we can protect the peace – for all of Altea.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The decision of commander needs to be settled – of course, what else would you expect? Time to fight our friends! Kris and Ryan team up to take on cavalier duo Luke and Roderick. Kris also finds out that strategy is... not really his strong suit. But hey, teamwork always wins out... usually.

They were invited to eat lunch in the castle’s massive dining hall as the senior knights discussed the results of the test. With nowhere else to go, and the fact it was already noon, Kris gladly took the opportunity to fill his stomach.

The dining hall seemed to reverberate with the chatter of the other squires. Kris found himself having to shout to get Katarina to even hear him; eventually, they just gave up on trying to talk and unanimously agreed to finish their meals and get out as soon as possible.

“Phew, that was a pretty good meal.” He sighed contentedly as they exited the dining hall together. Katarina giggled softly. “Yeah, it was… it was one of the best I’ve ever had, I think. But you – you devoured nearly two and a half helpings back there…”

“Grandfather always said that strength came from nourishing yourself properly.” Kris explained. “To be able to train well, you have to eat to give yourself enough energy. You know, Katarina, you should probably eat more if we’re going to start training soon…”

“Eh–?! I – I think I ate a lot more than I usually do already…”

“Really?” Kris squinted at her dubiously. “Well, once we start training, I’m sure you’ll realise how hungry you’ll get; then you’ll realise how important a good meal is.”

“I… well, maybe…” Katarina cleared her throat. “Er, anyway – do you think the groupings are already done? Maybe we can go check…”

“Let’s go, then. Not like we have much to do, and… I don’t think people would be happy to see us just wandering around Altea Castle.” Kris scratched the back of his head with a frown. “Where did he say we should check, again?”

“He mentioned something about a bulletin board near the dining hall…”

“A bulletin board? Hm.” Kris scanned the area around them. The grassy courtyard to their right, separated from the path by a waist-height stone wall, accommodated a couple of the squires they had seen back at the testing grounds earlier. A couple were loitering about, but it looked like there was a small group congregated up by the wall on the other side of the courtyard…

“Over there, then? Let’s go check.”

The two of them made their way over. Katarina lifted herself up on her tiptoes to try catch a glimpse at the papers pinned to the board. “Hm… it looks like there are about, whoa… twenty platoons? That’s a lot of squires…”

“Hmm… Oh, wait, I think I found my name… and yours! Katarina, we’re in the same platoon!” Kris said excitedly, pointing at the sheet of paper his eyes had landed on. A wide smile broke across Katarina’s face. “R-really?! That’s – ah, I feel so lucky…! I’m glad we were grouped together, Kris.”

“It looks like we’ve been designated as members of the Seventh Platoon.” Kris remarked.

“The Seventh Platoon? Hey, that means we’re teammates!” Somebody else declared, butting into their conversation with a wide grin and a wave. “I’m Luke! Or, if you prefer, you can call me Luke, Paladin of Dawn!”

“Luke… oh, you’re that person!” Katarina suddenly exclaimed.

“You know him?” Kris asked, raising his eyebrows. Though as he took a closer look, Luke did look familiar – slicked back green hair, blue armour…

“Oh? You’ve heard of me?” The green-haired cavalier puffed up with pride. “See, Roderick? I told you–”

“You were the one yelling in front of the castle gates, weren’t you?” Katarina tapped a finger to her chin. “Oh, and… ah, right! Are you alright?”

“At the sight of a pretty lady like you, of course–”

“–it looked like that fall from your horse earlier was pretty bad. Or were you… kicked off? I can’t quite remember…”

“Oh.” Luke immediately deflated, which earned an amused hum from the other person next to him. “It looks like you’ve certainly made a name for yourself, Luke.”

“Hey–!”

“Just ignore him.” His companion – dressed in a similar style of armour, except in green – offered a quick nod to Kris and Katarina. “My name is Roderick. A pleasure to meet you. I’m in the Seventh Platoon too.”

“Nice to meet you.” Kris replied. “So, is that everyone?”

“It looks like we have a fifth member of our platoon, too… ‘Ryan’, apparently?” Katarina studied the sheet of paper on the bulletin board, now that a couple of the other squires had left. “Oh, it looks like I’m the only girl…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Kris said. “We’re all training to be knights, after all. Gender doesn’t change a thing.”

“I guess…”

“U-um… you – d-did you say you were the Seventh Platoon?”

“Hm? Oh, yes–” Kris turned. “Are you Ryan?”

“E-er… yes, I am.” The green-haired boy glanced at the others nervously, fiddling with the quiver on his back. “I…”

“Hey, are you an archer?” Luke suddenly called.

“Y-yes…?”

“Hey, we’ve got a pretty well rounded group!” Luke turned to Kris. “Hey, weren’t you the first guy in the test? You use a sword, right? And you, uh, Katarina, right? You…”

“I, er, I’m training to be a strategist – somewhat… not officially, but er, I’m not really great at combat.” Katarina admitted. Roderick quirked an eyebrow at her. “So you’re training to be a knight, but you’re also…?”

“I–! I just want to, er, serve Prince Marth in any way I can…”

“Besides, we’ve got quite a while to hone our skills.” Kris explained. “So by the time we’re knighted, I’m sure we’ll all be ready for that!”

“I suppose…”

“E-er… it looks like Sir Jagen left us instructions at the top.” Ryan suddenly piped up from where he was craning his neck to read the text at the top of the sheets of paper with their groupings. “It looks like… we have to decide on a commander? And then report that to him…”

“Commander? Gotcha! Well, I’ll be commander if you guys all insist!” Luke declared.

“No one’s insisting anything, Luke…”

“Er, e-excuse me. I’d… I’d like to recommend Kris.” Katarina spoke up. Kris blinked with surprise. “Huh? Why me?”

“W-well… er,” Katarina glanced around at everyone, “Kris is a really strong individual! A-and, during the mock battle yesterday, he… he encouraged me, and r-really helped me gain the confidence I needed to get through the first test… and I think those are qualities that, er, a leader should have…?”

“That sounds like a good reason…” Ryan mumbled, only to be interrupted by Luke.

“Alright then! Kris, I challenge you in a duel to prove who’s stronger; and if you’re even able to beat me, then I’ll graciously cede the position to you!”

“Huh? W-what does that have to do with anything?” Katarina looked between the two nervously. Kris frowned. “That’s… not really necessary–”

“It’s a challenge, man-to-man!” Luke slapped a fist to his own chest for emphasis. “Kris, you’re not afraid to fight me, are you?”

“Of course he isn’t!” Katarina burst out, glaring fixedly at Luke. “He’ll never lose to someone like you!”

“Well…” Roderick said. “If it’ll help us make a decision, then… if you two spar, we’ll be able to see who has the skill to become commander.”

Luke grinned and spun around. “Alright! I’ll go get my horse and sword – you better get ready to lose, Kris!”

Roderick sighed as he watched the other cavalier sprint away, then turned to Kris. “I can only hope you can beat him in combat.” He said, almost gravely. “Because while I don’t doubt his combat abilities, if he were to become leader…”

Katarina chewed on her lower lip, then let out a long exhale. “I’m sorry I pulled you into this, Kris. That was selfish of me… but I couldn’t stand hearing him make fun of you.”

“I’d never say no to a spar, so you just helped me answer.” Kris replied, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Besides, my grandfather always said that a spar is the best way for men to get to know each other. And it’s been a while since I’ve done any training against an actual opponent; I’m actually looking forward to this, in fact.”

“Your… grandfather sure sounds colourful…”

“Perhaps we should organise ourselves into teams as well,” Roderick said thoughtfully. “So we can judge not only strength, but also leadership abilities. And frankly… I’m hoping this shows Luke how important a good leader is when working in a team.”

Ryan swallowed nervously. “I… er, I don’t really know if I’ll be of any help…”

“Don’t worry about it, Ryan. As long as you do your best for your team, you’ll be fine.” Kris glanced at him.

“U-um…! That – that… well, I can try…!”

“If you’re working with Kris, then I’ll work with Luke.” Roderick sighed, and turned to study the area where Luke had last disappeared off to. “I can almost predict how this might turn out. Kris, Ryan –”

“E-er, I’ll sit out the side!” Katarina volunteered. “I’m… not a very good fighter yet, so I’ll really just hinder everyone – besides, we have five people, so it won’t be equal if I join a team…”

“I… see.” Roderick turned towards Kris and Ryan. “Then you two will be on the same team. Kris, you’ll lead your team, and I’ll let Luke lead… even if it’ll probably turn out the way I think it will.”

“Er, we-we are using training weapons, right?” Ryan spoke up. “I… I think I know where they are – or, er, where we can get them…”

“Training weapons would be best for a spar like this. Thank you, Ryan.” Roderick said. Ryan nodded and hurried away as well.

“Since we’ll be fighting in groups… perhaps one of the battlefields like the test grounds we were at earlier might be a good place, if Sir Jagen doesn’t mind us using those.” Roderick continued. “Kris, Katarina – do you remember where it was?”

“Yes; the path leading down right next to the castle, right?” Katarina nodded. “We’ll meet you there…?”

“I’ll go tell Ryan and Luke about the arrangements, then. We’ll gather there shortly.”

-x-x-x-

“I’m,” Ryan stumbled to a stop by the other four squires and let the selection of wooden weapons clatter to the ground. “back… I’m not sure which ones are the ones you guys want, so, er, I brought a few.” With that ordeal over, he gratefully stumbled over to the shade of the tree and slumped down to take a break.

“Thank you for bringing all this. You really didn’t have to bring all of it… just any old training sword would’ve done.” Kris smiled at the huffing boy. “But thank you anyway.”

“You got tired bringing just this? Hah! The Legendary Luke would’ve never–”

“Luke, just pick up a weapon.” Roderick said, already sounding weary. “Ryan brought all of this for the duel you insisted on having, so at the very least, you should thank him.”

“Hey, I was just saying! But yeah, thanks, Ryan.”

“Where did you get these, anyway?” Kris asked, picking up one of the wooden swords and weighing it in his hand. “These would be useful to have around for training.”

“I, ah, the… the storage rooms. My brother let me borrow the key…”

“Your brother? Is he a knight here?”

“Ah, yes…!” Ryan’s face lit up despite his clear exhaustion, and he sat up almost at once. “My brother, Gordin – he’s a knight, which is why I’m here too…! He taught me the basics of archery, so I’m hoping to become as skilful as he is…”

“That sounds like a wonderful reason.” Katarina smiled. “Siblings… they’re – they’re quite nice to have, even though sometimes they’re…”

“Right! I’m ready!” Luke declared, shooting to his feet after procuring the ‘perfect’ sword out of the pile of training weapons. He rushed over to where his horse was standing and climbed into the saddle.

“We’ll start on the other side of the battlefield,” Roderick called, climbing into the saddle of his own horse with a lance in hand. Kris nodded and sent him a wave to show that he’d understood.

“U-um, Kris…” Ryan peeled himself off the ground and hurried over, grasping a training bow in his hands. “So, er, you’re going to be leading, right? So… uh, is there anything I should do?”

“Well…” Kris frowned as he turned back to where the two cavaliers had trotted over to the other end of the battlefield, and were currently engaged in discussion; probably about battle plans, too. _Working in a team, huh? Grandfather never really taught me about how to handle this, only that it was important, but… besides, how does giving orders on the battlefield work, anyway?_

“Kris, prepare yourself!” Luke suddenly bellowed from the other side of the battlefield.

“Er, just… shoot arrows at them.” Kris said, looking around. “There’s – there’s a patch of trees over there, right? Maybe stand there for protection, and, uh, just… shoot arrows.”

“Uh… I guess I can do that? But is there anything in particular…”

“I’m not quite sure exactly what or how this’ll work, so I guess – just follow your instinct?” Kris quickly turned at the sound of Luke shouting something inaudible. “Just do your best out there!”

“Um – I’ll try!” Ryan skittered away, bow in hand, as Kris watched Luke begin to gallop across the expanse of the training field. With all the messy schematics of actually ‘leading a team’ out of the way (which, Kris decided, he would probably have to think more about if he actually won this battle), he readied his stance and let out a deep exhale, rolling back his shoulders and loosening the tension in his arms.

Kris kept his eyes trained on the growing shape of Luke and his horse, holding his ground until the last second. He leaped out of the way of Luke’s sword and dealt a blow to Luke’s leg as his horse rushed past.

An arrow flew from between the trees and clinked fruitlessly off the leg armour of Luke’s horse. _So Ryan’s shooting arrows, like I asked, but – how exactly am I meant to give any orders to him when he’s in the trees? And how exactly do archers work on the battlefield, anyway – I need to find some sort of tactics book, or something…_

He spared a glance out at the other side of the battlefield. _Huh. I wonder what Roderick’s doing back there…? I guess I should be grateful – I don’t know if I’d be able to take on two cavaliers at once…_

Luke circled around, undeterred by the lone arrow – but his confident smile was gone and replaced with something more determined. “This is only the beginning!” He called, readying his sword. “Prepare yourself!”

His horse whinnied loudly as Luke urged it to charge again. Kris prepared himself, watching the blur of Luke’s sword rapidly approach him.

He side-stepped out of the way of the horse and deflected Luke’s strike with a whistling upwards slash of his own, wincing at the way the bones in his hands seemed to rattle at the sheer force of meeting the momentum of Luke’s sword head-on. The horse skidded to a stop as Luke pulled its reins with the other hand, causing it to rear and whip around to face Kris.

Kris ducked and took several steps back to avoid being crushed by the horse’s kicking front hooves, switching his grip to a two-handed one to block Luke’s next blow.

“You can do it, Kris!” Katarina called from the relatively safe distance of the tree.

Luke swiped his sword at Kris from around the neck of his horse, which he dodged. However, Luke pressed the attack, swinging his sword with such force that Kris could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up at the whistle of each slash.

Kris gritted his teeth as he felt himself being forced back. With most of his focus on trying not to trip over from each step backwards, the rapid movement of something caught his eye, and he hesitated –

–just as another arrow whacked Luke in the arm at the same time Luke’s sword met his shoulder with a painful thunk.

Kris staggered, hissing through his teeth at the ache that spread through his left arm. _Damn – I can’t let myself get distracted like this… Ryan’s supposed to be on my team, so I can’t keep on being surprised every time he fires an arrow._

Switching his sword back to his right hand again, Kris made several rapid swings that drove Luke’s horse back, before backing off to catch his breath and regain his bearing.

_He’s a lot stronger than I anticipated, past all of his boasts. But that only means that I can’t let my guard down. I’ll need to find some way to defeat him before he can deal any more blows; trying to deflect any more might actually break my fingers._ With that made certain in his mind, Kris began to approach Luke again, keeping his steps light and swift in anticipation of evading any potential attack.

“Oh? You’re approaching me again?” Luke grinned confidently down at him, though the sweat trickling across his face said otherwise. “Time to show you what I’ve got, then! Here I come!”

Kris ducked underneath the brutally-fierce swing of Luke’s sword and abruptly swerved to the opposite side of the horse, nearly hitting his own head on the horse’s jaw as he twisted around. Taking the temporary blind spot he had just created, he grasped his sword in both hands – ignoring the bruising pain creeping down his shoulder – and brought the flat of the blade in a clubbing motion directly at Luke’s chest.

The throbbing of his arm was nothing compared to the thrill of satisfaction as his risky stunt succeeded. With a surprised, choked-off yelp, Luke was practically torn from his saddle and landed with a thump on the grassy floor.

“Gah, impossible – you beat me…?”

Kris exhaled, relieved that the ordeal was finally over. However, at the sound of hoofbeats, he looked up and blinked.

_Oh, right, we have to fight Roderick as well…_

Kris lifted his sword and met Roderick’s lance head-on. At least, he tried, but the blunt tip came barrelling at his chest with such frightening momentum that Kris felt himself flinch away despite being prepared for the impact of the sword clashing against the shaft of the lance.

Thankfully, Roderick drew back almost at once, circling back around to prepare for his next strike. “I need to see your ability firsthand, especially if you’re to become the commander.” He called, lifting his lance and levelling it at Kris again.

An arrow whistled through the air and narrowly missed Roderick’s head. The brunette cavalier gave a start, turning towards the forest where Ryan was hidden.

Much to Kris’s surprise, Roderick abruptly spurred his horse towards the patch of trees.

“Hey, wait, I thought we were sparring–?” Kris began, then a thought hit him: _Wait, I’m fighting in a team – that means I actually have to keep watch over Ryan, too. Maybe this strategy wasn’t the best idea…_ Kris berated himself under his breath as he sprinted after Roderick. _When did this battlefield get so big again?_

Kris burst through the trees, just in time to see Ryan attempting to flee – or at least put distance – between the opponent that had suddenly appeared in front of him. The green-haired archer shot Kris a desperate look. “Kris–!”

“Hold on!” Kris called. Ryan yelped as Roderick’s lance thunked against the tree behind him.

“What’s with the running away?” Kris finally managed to reach where the two were ‘sparring’, and immediately skidded to a stop in front of Roderick to block the next swing. Ryan sent him a grateful look and scrambled out of reach, hopefully to continue firing arrows.

“Your strategy could use some work.” Roderick replied. “Leaving an archer undefended is never a good idea, as I can simply approach them from close quarters and defeat them before facing you.”

_He’s not wrong, though… ugh, focus, Kris! You should’ve paid more attention to your strategy…_ Kris parried the next blow and twisted the blade of his sword, knocking Roderick’s lance to the side. At least, now with being in the forest – if it could even be called that, with its meagre four trees – it was easier to evade Roderick’s attacks by simply using the trees as cover. _Huh, maybe that could be considered strategy too… though it’s nowhere close to a fair duel, it looks like this is the terrain and strategy I’ll be up against here in training._

Kris spared a glance behind himself. Ryan had finally scrambled to his feet, and was aiming his bow at them. “I can’t get a clear shot…!”

Kris exhaled sharply through his teeth. “Right–”

In his distraction, he felt the blunted tip of the lance deliver a bruising blow to his chest. “Ah, ow–!”

“S-sorry, Kris!”

Instead of answering Ryan, Kris dived to the floor. “Now!” He forced out, swallowing back his groan of pain from landing directly on his left arm – _Ouch, I completely forgot Luke got me there earlier…_

He knew that Ryan had at least gotten a hit on Roderick when he heard the other cavalier hiss and back away. Kris rolled over and pulled himself to his feet, resisting the urge to rub ruefully at his aching arm. “Alright, we’d better finish this before he gets another hit on either of us…”

“U-understood!” Ryan nocked another arrow again. “I – I’m hoping… er, my brother always said that to defeat a cavalier, you have to knock them from their horse…”

Kris let out a long exhale and nodded. “Alright. So… er, sorry for leaving you back there, earlier…”

“I-it’s okay. Let’s just… finish this!”

Kris rolled back his shoulders and grasped his sword in both hands, feeling a spark of determination creep through his aching body at Ryan’s words. “Let’s do this, then!”

The blur of movement from Roderick circling back around caught Kris’s eye as he turned to his left, and he quickly shoved himself in front of Ryan. “I’ll put myself in front of you, and – just chip away at him with your arrows!”

Ryan let out a noise of confirmation. Kris charged forwards, meeting Roderick’s lance with an arcing swing of his own. “I’ll finish this!”

Kris launched a battering offence of his own, swinging and cutting through the air in front of him with rapid twists of his arms and wrists. Unlike when facing Luke, Roderick (and his horse) backed away to try get out of reach of his sword rather than for Roderick to meet his assault head-on. _I guess Grandfather was right about saying that sparring others is a way of getting to know them; their battle style definitely matches what I’ve seen of them… but now isn’t the time to get distracted with this._

Another arrow hit the ground near the hooves of Roderick’s horse, causing it to abruptly stop in its tracks – much to the dismay of its rider, because Kris took the opportunity to slip around and deliver a two-handed slash directly at Roderick’s torso.

“Urgh–!” The horse, surprisingly, did not bolt after its rider was unseated, though it did take a couple of steps back as Kris approached. Kris huffed out a breath, finally letting the adrenaline drain from him, and offered Roderick a hand.

“You’re definitely a strong opponent; and well-practiced, too. I could see it in the way you fight.” Roderick took the offered hand and let Kris pull him back to his feet with a wheeze. “I should be lucky I’m on your side for the rest of our battles – I can certainly say that I’ll be glad I won’t have to face the force behind your blade in real combat.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, then?”

“Ah, there is a thing – while I am certain that you would make a better leader than… Luke, as we both bore witness to his reckless actions… it was a risky move leaving your archer behind.” Roderick raised an eyebrow. “Was that intentional?”

“Ah, well… uh, no.” Kris scratched the back of his head with his slightly less sore right arm. “I… yeah, you’re right that I’m not… very good at this.”

“Good at what? Strategy?”

“I’ve just… never really had to do any sort of mock combat like this. It’s always been one-on-one duels with my grandfather, so…”

“Heeey!” They both turned to see both Luke and Ryan hurry up to join them. Luke, with a hand over his side and limping over, and Ryan covered in leaves and looking ecstatic. Luke waved at them with his other hand as he approached. “So you were beaten too, Rody? Heh, so you couldn’t take on Kris either…”

“You do realise the reason for us both losing was because we didn’t fight together?” Roderick replied. “We took turns fighting Kris and Ryan one-by-one; that’s why we lost to them…”

“Y-yeah!” Ryan nodded, still smiling wider than they had ever seen in their first couple of hours of meeting each other. “Even if we’re weak individually… we can becomes stronger by working with our friends. That’s, er, what my brother told me…”

“Thank goodness – I knew you could do it!” Katarina suddenly rushed up to them, a wide smile across her face. “That looked so intense… I kind of lost sight of you after you went into the trees, but it looks like – you guys did win, right?”

“Yeah, they did.” Luke nodded. “Alright, I’m a man of my word. I’ll keep my promise. From here on, the commander’ll be Kris.”

“To be honest, I… I don’t know how great of a leader I’ll actually be.” Kris admitted, glancing guiltily at Ryan. “I mean, I know how to spar, and my grandfather trained me, but that’s it… I’m, uh, I don’t know how well I’ll be able to lead a team.”

“Don’t worry, Kris!” This time, it was Katarina’s turn to send him a reassuring smile. “Like you said before… we have a lot of time to practice and get better. I’m sure you’ll be a great leader, especially after we all get to know each other a little more…!”

“She has a point.” Roderick said. “While your strategy today could’ve been… better thought out, she is right that we’ll probably be working as a team for quite a while longer. That’s more than enough time to learn each others’ strengths and weaknesses, and learn to work together; like Altean knights.”

“Hmm… yeah, I guess you’re right.” Luke tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Fighting together is far more important….”

Katarina smiled at him, expression warm. “Luke… I’m so glad. You understand now–”

“Yeah, it’s all clear to me now.” Luke nodded vigorously. “Looks like being the leader would be more trouble than it’s worth! So I’ll leave this bothersome job to Kris!”

He grinned and extended a hand to Kris. “I’m sure it’ll be a pleasure working under him! Kris, I’ll be looking forward to your help!”

He shook Kris’s hand before Kris really had a chance to absorb everything he’d said, Luke suddenly spun around and yelled “I forgot – my horse!”

Before he knew it, Luke had sprinted across the battlefield to retrieve his horse from where he’d apparently left it.

“Ah… does he… really get it?”

“A-at least we have a commander now!” Ryan piped up. “Er, do we – do we need to tell Sir Jagen, or…”

“I guess,” Kris said dubiously as he recalled the visage of the stern veteran knight. “So…”

“Sounds like that’s your job as commander now.” Katarina remarked, giving him a half-sympathetic and half-rueful look. “I’m sure he can’t be that scary… but you know, either way, good luck with talking to him.”

“My brother said that Sir Jagen is, er, how did he put it…?” Ryan’s brow scrunched up. “Ah! He said he’s ‘just as stern as he looks’… wait, no, that’s a bad thing, isn’t it?”

“I’ll manage,” Kris reassured, though internally he was trying to hide his own grimace at the thought of speaking alone to the veteran knight. “I mean, if I’m going to be commander, I better get used to giving reports to our senior knights, right?”

_Besides, Sir Jagen was my grandfather’s old friend, and my grandfather never said anything about him being an irrationally strict or angry person. I should just make sure to be respectful and not get on his bad side; kind of like how I’d speak to Grandfather back then._

“Oh dear, will we have to speak to Sir Jagen ourselves too? I’m – I’m not ready for something like that, he’s way too scary, we’re just new recruits–!”

“Relax, Ryan. There’s no need for panic. Besides, Sir Jagen may seem intimidating, but he wouldn’t get angry at you if you’ve done nothing.” Roderick said, setting a hand on the shorter squire’s shoulder in an attempt to quell his trembling.

“Your first daring task as commander, huh?” Luke suddenly clapped Kris on the back after apparently having snuck up on him from behind with his horse in tow, startling him from his train of thought. “I’d wish you luck, but I doubt you’d need it! In fact, I’ve decided – it definitely would be best for you to be commander and give the boring reports to Sir Jagen after all…”

“After you made a fool of yourself in front of him, I can see why.”

“Hey!” Luke pouted, though from the tone of his voice he didn’t seem particularly offended. “I was just making a… grand exit, worthy of the Legendary Luke, that’s all!”

“Because being flung from your horse at the end of your duel is most certainly the way to go.” Roderick shot back, but he didn’t seem particularly harsh about it either. Kris supposed it was just the way their friendship was, if anything. _Maybe I’m the strange one here… there never really were any other kids my age in Sera, were there? Aside from that girl back then, in the other village…_

“Ah, wait – I know what’s missing – a title!” Luke abruptly said, clapping Kris on the back again. At least he was a little more prepared this time and didn’t fall over.

Roderick sighed, somehow understanding whatever Luke had just said. “Luke, please don’t.”

Kris blinked and tried to absorb everything Luke had just said. “A… title?”

Luke grinned and pointed at Kris. “Every legendary heroes have their own awesome title! And since you’re going to be the commander of the platoon of the Legendary Luke, Paladin of Dawn…”

“I don’t think that really accounts for much–”

“Your name will go down in history, too, so it must have a title deserving of such honour!” Luke took a step closer and squinted at Kris. A prickling feeling of discomfort began to creep down his spine as the green-haired cavalier shoved his face uncomfortably close to his.

“Uh… what are you–?”

“Hm, let’s see… judging by your eyes… it’s got to be Kris the Ordinary!”

“The… what?”

“Yeah – Kris the Ordinary!” Luke puffed up his chest, clearly proud of himself.

“I don’t really understand… and I don’t think it’s particularly flattering–”

Before Kris could continue with telling Luke why this was such a bad idea, Katarina cut into their conversation. “Er… so, Kris…”

“Yeah, I’ll go report to Sir Jagen now.” Kris glanced at Ryan and handed him his practice sword. “Thanks for bringing these for our spar.”

“Good luck!” Katarina chirped, giving him a timid wave.

The four other squires watched Kris trudge across the battlefield and up the steps towards the castle.

“Er, n-not to rush anyone, but, uh, do you know where we’re supposed to go now?” Ryan asked.

“We could just wander around Altea Castle?” Luke suggested. “I mean, we are supposed to be spending the next part of our lives living and training here, after all, and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty curious to see where Prince Marth lives–”

This earned him a slap across the back of head from Roderick. “You’re supposed to give Prince Marth your utmost respect!”

“Ow–! Ow, okay, fine… wait, what about it was even disrespectful?”

“Are we… even allowed?”

“Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I mean, if our entire lives are spent trudging between wherever we’re meant to be sleeping and the training grounds, then… that’d be a pretty boring life, that’s for sure!”

“We came here to become knights. What were you expecting?”

“Heh, well, for a start – you know, knighthood often grabs the attention of all the ladies… –ow!”

Luke rubbed the back of his head where a second bruise was likely growing over the first one. “What was that for?!”

“Knighthood is about serving Prince Marth and delivering justice, not _that_.” Roderick retorted, lowering his hand. “Becoming a knight is an honour, and you should treat it as such.”

“Right… so are we just going to stand here and wait for Kris to come back?” Ryan asked Katarina, since the two cavaliers were too busy bickering to notice them slip away. She glanced back after where Kris had disappeared off to and shrugged. “I… guess so,” she said, “Since we don’t really know what we’re supposed to do next, or even what our schedule is meant to be. When you read the note Sir Jagen left behind, did he say anything about another task?”

“I… don’t think so.”

“Hm…”

The two squires fell into thoughtful silence; at least, one of them did. The other turned back to the other two members of their platoon, who were still arguing as their horses grazed on the grass contentedly by their side.

“Should we… stop them?”

“I don’t think it’d work, even if we tried.” Katarina replied. “Besides, something tells me that this will definitely not be the last time this’ll happen…”

-x-x-x-

“Hm… uh, which way is it?” Kris looked between the two identical forks in the corridor, frowning. “Maybe I should just ask someone…”

He caught sight of a short, green-haired figure passing by one of the corridors. _Aha! That must be one of the other squires – maybe they’d know where to go to find Sir Jagen? It looks like he knows where he’s going…_

“Hey, excuse me?” Kris hurried after them, waving. He relaxed as he saw them turn and look at him inquisitively. “Are you… talking to me? O-oh! Oh, you must be one of the, er, couple dozen squires that Sir Jagen brought in, right?”

“…yes?” Kris took a closer look at the presumed squire and blinked. “Uh… so, you’re…”

“I’m Gordin! I’m… one of the knights here.”

“Oh.”

_I… was not expecting that._ He quickly wiped the surprised expression off his own face as best as he could and tried to recall what he was about to ask. “Oh, right, er – Sir Gordin, I apologise for my rudeness. Do you know where Sir Jagen is? He asked us to report to him, and…”

“Ah!” The green-haired knight’s face lit up. “So you’re lost–! Yes, I can help you! Ahem.”

He pointed down the corridor. “Turn left and take the stairs. His room is the door just to your left. Knock before you enter; Cain rushed in there once and got quite the lecture… ah, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, should I?”

Gordin scratched his head and chuckled bashfully. “But yeah, that’s about it. Do you have any more questions? A-as a knight of Altea, I’ll answer them to the best of my abilities…!”

“It’s quite alright. Thank you, Sir Gordin.” Kris promptly began walking towards the left corridor.

“Ah… er, I see…” Gordin frowned to himself as he watched the squire leave. _Did I scare him off? That’s not good… wait, did he – no, there’s no way he’d mistake me as one of the apprentice knights…!_

_…oh, who am I kidding?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kris forgets to bring anything to his new home except for the clothes on his back and his sword, Luke becomes a room critic, then Kris and Ryan have a pleasant conversation about the weather. You know, the usual.

“I’m back!” Kris called.

“Oh, good. Did Sir Jagen have anything to say?” Katarina asked, turning to him.

“He just wrote something down and sent me out. Oh, and he gave us our next task.”

Roderick paused in his, er, conversation with Luke – which had been more of a one-sided lecture, it seemed – and turned to face him too. “What is it, then?”

“He said that the only thing we have to do for today is to find our assigned rooms, dust them off and unpack anything we need to unpack.” Kris explained. “And to read and review the rules and schedule that we’ll be following starting tomorrow.”

“Oh? So today’s training… that was it?”

“Yeah.” Kris said. “But he said we have another preliminary assessment tomorrow morning.”

“Ugh… already?” Luke groaned. “Man, my body is aching.”

Roderick frowned. “That’s what you’d expect from training under the esteemed senior knights of Altea, Luke.”

“We literally just fought one soldier for the test and then the rest of the bruises are Kris’s fault!”

“But you were the one who asked to spar with Kris…” Ryan muttered. Luke paused to consider it, then shrugged. “Eh, still.”

“Anyway, besides that… you said he asked us to find our assigned rooms, right?” Katarina said, interrupting whatever Roderick was about to say to Luke in retort. “Did he… say where they were, or anything?”

“Uh…” Kris scratched his head. “He said something about the first floor of… something. Oh, but I remember the room numbers, though! He said that the doors have numberplates, and that we’re staying in 122 to 124. I’m pretty sure I remembered that correctly!”

“Three rooms…? That’d be… groups of two.” Ryan said thoughtfully, after pondering the numbers under his breath. “Because… there’re five of us, right? Oh, that means that’s one extra…”

“I suppose I’ll have to room with Luke, then. For everyone’s sake.” Roderick immediately said, before Luke could speak up. “And if I may, I’d say that Katarina should have the extra room. It’d be… inappropriate of a knight otherwise.”

“O-oh, I – well, if you guys wouldn’t mind…”

Kris nodded and turned to Ryan. “I guess we’re staying in the same room together, then.”

“I-I’m okay with that!”

“Hey, wait, Rody – what did you mean by ‘for everyone’s sake’?!”

“Before we go find our rooms,” Roderick said, ignoring Luke’s exclamation, “Luke and I will head to the stables to untack our horses. And the training weapons…”

“I’ll – I’ll put them back!” Ryan said. “I mean, I was the one who got them, after all…”

“We’ll help out.” Kris offered with a smile. “After all, you did bring them here, so it’d only be fair if we put them back.”

“Shall we meet at the courtyard outside the dining hall after we’re done?” Katarina suggested. “Then we can go look for our rooms together, so we don’t end up being split up and getting lost.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Roderick said, heading over to where his horse was standing. “We’ll see you there, then.”

-x-x-x-

After going to do their respective tasks, they reconvened at the courtyard. For Kris, Katarina and Ryan, it was fairly easy to reach – thankfully – since the storage room Ryan had led them to was directly next to the dining hall. A couple of minutes later, Luke and Roderick showed up, now without their mounts and with satchels slung over their shoulders.

“What are those?” Kris asked curiously, inclining his head towards said bags.

“Belongings we brought from home. Mostly clothes and things the castle likely won’t provide.” Roderick explained. “Since we’ll be getting settled in today, we decided to take these off our horses so we can unpack.”

“Huh. I… didn’t think of that.”

“You… didn’t?” Katarina said, shock lacing her voice. “You – you didn’t bring anything?”

“Well, I have my sword…”

“My brother’s been keeping hold of everything I’d need, so I should go and visit him to pick them up.” Ryan piped up. “Maybe… maybe he’d know where you should go to maybe get some new clothes sorted?”

“Uh… your brother, huh – wait, actually…” Kris frowned. “Your brother, huh – that sounds familiar…”

“I’d assume anyone would simply tell you to go visit the tailors in the marketplace.” Roderick recommended. “You should probably go do that this evening so you have at least a change of clothes before tomorrow.”

“Right… I’ll do that later, then. Uh, but that aside, where are our rooms, anyway?”

“I saw some squires heading off that way.” Katarina pointed. “Sir Jagen probably told them to do the same thing as us, so…”

“Follow them, is what you’re saying?”

And so they followed the other squires. Nobody really paid them much attention, seeing as how many eager young apprentice knights were everywhere; mostly chattering amongst their own platoon or just wandering to and fro down the hallways.

“Whoa, it’s busy – what’s going on?” Luke asked, flattening himself against the side of a wall to let a pair of squires with a large mattress in between them pass.

“We’re getting our rooms sorted.” Someone called back from where they were standing in the doorway of their room. “Bulletin board’s at the end, storage rooms are to the right. You need to grab your own blankets, bedsheets, all that stuff.”

“Oh, okay, thanks.” Kris called over his shoulder as they shuffled past.

“Looks like these are our rooms.” Luke suddenly said, stopping in the middle of the corridor. This earned quite a few annoyed yells as someone with a stack of blankets and pillows fell over.

“Just go inside one of them and let’s get out of the way.” Ryan said nervously. Thankfully, Luke didn’t question it and did as asked; they all spilled into the quaint room and spread out amongst the small amount of space they did have.

“This is room… 124.” Roderick studied the number plate on the wooden door. “This means our other rooms should be across and to the left.”

“It’s kinda a small room for two,” Luke pondered, looking around. “And you know, you’d think it’d look nicer, but it looks like they just took a prison cell and stripped it bare.”

“Not a lot you can do about it with about a hundred squires all living in the rooms in one hallway.” Katarina said. “At least they gave us somewhere to sleep, right? And it’s not even that bad–” She glanced at the two wooden bedframes, at opposite ends of the room, accompanied by two plain wooden closets and desks. “–they supplied us with all this furniture, too.”

“This? ‘Not even that bad’?” Luke scoffed. “I’d bet there are some prison cells that are nicer than this.”

“At least it doesn’t look like they just cleared out some prison cells and made us sleep there,” Ryan pointed out, pushing open one of the curtains. “They have windows, after all… wait, do you think Altea Castle would’ve even have cells?”

“Whatever they repurposed these rooms for, it doesn’t really matter. It will be our homes from now on, as Altean squires.” Katarina said.

Kris sneezed. “Phew, it sure is dusty though.”

“Must be from all the things people are carrying around. They said they got them from the storage rooms – I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t clean those out very often.” Roderick replied. “Either way, we should go and get our own supplies from the storage rooms too, if that is what’s expected of us. Do any of you have any qualms about your room choices in particular or would you just like to pick one at random?”

“Hey, wait! I need to check the other rooms before I pick!” Luke abruptly turned on his heel and sprinted out of the doorway, only to be immediately bowled over by somebody’s mattress as they just happened to pass by outside. “Oof!”

“Er, is he alright…?” Ryan asked.

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll be fine.” Roderick said nonchalantly. “Anyway, as I was saying, does anybody want one of the rooms in particular?”

“I’m fine with anything.” Kris shrugged. “Ryan?”

“M-me too! I don’t mind… you guys can choose your own rooms first!”

“I think I should get the last pick, since you’re offering up the room with the extra bed and space to me.” Katarina pointed out.

“It’s fine, Katarina. I’d doubt these rooms have much in difference, anyway.” Kris said.

From the not-so-distant room just across, Luke could faintly be heard calling “Roderick! This is our room! It’s got a nicer view!”

“We’re not here to spend time admiring the view…” Roderick sighed. “Well, if you really don’t mind, I’ll just take whatever room Luke’s decided to claim for himself.”

“Sure, go ahead.” Kris waved him off. “Katarina–”

“I–I’ll just take the room next door!” Katarina exclaimed, before he could say anything. “Er, if you don’t mind…”

“This is our room, then?” Ryan asked, as soon as she’d left. Kris nodded. “Guess so. Well, Ryan… since we’re going to be staying in the same room together, uh, I hope you don’t mind snoring. Because, well…”

“A-ah, well, it’s fine… d-don’t worry about me!” Ryan tried to give him a feeble nod of confirmation, but really only succeeded in making himself look even more reluctant. Kris didn’t seem to notice, thankfully, and smiled back. “Alright, that’s good – because I’d hate to be a bother to you or anything. And if there’s anything I should be aware of…”

“Nope! I–I’m fine!”

“Alright.” Kris seemed to visibly relax at that. “You see, I’ve never really had to share a room with another person, so if there’s anything in particular you’re against…”

“I’m fine! Really! Don’t worry about me…” Ryan insisted, shaking his head. “E-er, thank you for asking…”

“Alright, I hope you don’t get too tired of me.” Kris joked. “How about we start getting our mattresses? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of sitting on a hard wooden bedframe…”

-x-x-x-

It turned out that stuffing about a hundred young men and women in a single cramped hallway and ordering them off to go around sorting out their own rooms was not a particularly good idea. Almost immediately after Kris had made his declaration, it turned out two squires from different platoons had ended up jamming their mattresses in the middle of the hallway after trying to get past each other at the same time.

So Kris and Ryan found themselves practically blocked into their rooms by a wall of linen bedding directly outside their door.

“I mean, at least it isn’t Luke being the one caught up in the arguments, right?” Ryan said, without much optimism.

As Kris opened his mouth to halfheartedly agree, the sound of Luke’s voice somehow managed to get through the mattress blocking their front door. “Now, beautiful ladies, how about you all take a step back and let Luke, Paladin of Dawn…”

“Shut up!” Two voice screamed in unison, and this was led to the sound of something that sounded like…

“Is that a fistfight going on outside?” Kris asked wearily, too tired to even get up from his mattress-less bed.

“Mhm… I hope Luke’s alright.”

They sat in silence for a couple more seconds, listening to the cacophony of shouting going on outside.

“So, uh, lovely weather today, right?” Kris broke the silence in their room again. The yelling outside continued.

“Yeah,” Ryan said glumly, glancing out the window. The sky was already turning from a light blue to a dark blue-purple, with hints of orange; a beautiful view, if not for the high-pitched shrieking that had started outside again. “It was nice.”

They sat for a couple seconds longer.

“Um, while we’re waiting… since we’re probably going to be working together for quite some time, and, er, do you want to… talk?”

“Talk? About what?”

“Er… what… what made you want to become a knight?”

“Well, it all started with my grandfather, MacLear….”

-x-x-x-

After what seemed like an eternity of shouting outside, one of the senior knights came to see what was with the yelling and managed to get everything moving again (after shouting at them and then deigning to help by shoving the mattresses through the narrow gap in the corridor with brute force).

Just after being startled by the mattress blockade suddenly falling aside, Kris caught a glimpse of bright red armour before the entire hallway was swarmed by crowds of squires trying to move past. He and Ryan sat a little longer before most of the squires had made their way through, then slipped through to enter the room just opposite his.

He walked into a strange but not unexpected scene – Luke nursing another bruise on his cheek and Roderick organising the closet. Katarina quickly burst into the two cavaliers’ shared room straight after.

“I-is everything alright? I heard shouting…”

“No, it isn’t alright–!” Luke whined, at the same time Roderick said “Nothing in particular happened.”

“What do you mean nothing happened?!”

“I said nothing _in particular_ happened. You harassing some women isn’t out of the ordinary.” Roderick replied.

“Oi–! Harassing?! I was only trying to offer my help…!”

“After pushing in between them and trying to put your arms around them? I’m surprised you got off with just a punch to the face.”

“Ugh, I need to watch out for _her_.” Luke paused in rubbing his cheek to sigh dramatically. “Ah, but while a delicate sweet maiden is more my type, I wouldn’t say no to fiery girls like her…”

Roderick scoffed. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Anyway, er, besides that…” Katarina piped up. “Ah, I… about getting the mattress, I don’t think I can really lift it…”

“I’ll help you out in a moment, Katarina.” Kris offered. “After Ryan and I grab our mattresses, I’ll help you with yours, alright?”

“A-and I’ll help too! Um, the best I can…” Ryan said.

“That’s – you’re really too kind…”

“No problem. That’s what we do as teammates – no, as friends, right?”

Katarina smiled at that, cheeks warming. “I – I suppose so, yes. Well, in that case, I’ll… I’ll do my best with helping you carry your other things, too! Just tell me what to do!”

-x-x-x-

They’d ended up picking up all of the lighter and less cumbersome items first, like the linen bedsheets and pillows, so they wouldn’t interfere with the other squires trying to move about the heavier items – which mostly consisted of the mattresses, which were stored in who-knows-where.

Then they unpacked (well, most of the Seventh Platoon did – Kris took the opportunity to grab the pouch of gold his grandfather had left him and slip down to the marketplace to look for a tailor). Thankfully, it was fairly easy to secure more clothes to last him for at least a couple of days before heading back up to the castle.

After spending just a little more time than he’d have cared to admit wandering around the hallways and getting lost, he stumbled back upon the squires’ hallway by walking in the opposite direction of the lines of people just in time to catch up with the others to go grab their mattresses, too.

“Ah, you're back.” Roderick greeted him. “We took a look at the bulletin board while you were out. There are a couple of rules and some important information we have to know, regarding rooming, the facilities and our daily schedule.”

“Uh, how long are these rules?”

“Well, several sheets long, but for the most important details: we have training in the morning and afternoon every day unless specified otherwise by our instructors, three meals are served each day in the dining hall, once in the morning, noon and evening, and about the living arrangements here, such as laundry–”

“That’s not important.” Luke interrupted. “He can read the rules later if he wants. We’ve been waiting ages to finally get some space to get our beds sorted, and I’m hungry. We’d probably have to wait ages in line at the dining hall by now…”

_Huh, so that’s where everyone was going._

“Don’t let me stop you from that, then.” Kris said. “You’re right – let’s get the last of what we need ready and go grab something to eat.”

-x-x-x-

“I take back what I said about today morning’s test being the last of the exercise for today,” Katarina huffed, doubling over to gasp for breath. “That was exhausting, and I hardly lifted anything.”

“Kris certainly did the lion’s share…” Ryan murmured. 

“Haven’t done as much heavy lifting as that in a while; don’t think I’ve even had to bother with something like this since my grandfather made me carry around logs for that village back then.” Kris stretched his aching arms and exhaled. “But that was some good training. You know, if I do some more of this, I’ll probably be able to strengthen my sword arm too…”

“Training again? Goodness, you certainly think about that a lot.” Luke shook his head. “C’mon! We’ve basically worked for the entire day; let’s finally grab something to eat! I’m starving!”

Nobody could really argue with Luke on that, so they made their way to the dining hall together. Kris attempted to study the hallways to memorise the route there, but every corridor was just identical and he eventually gave up after the first two turns.

“It’s so loud!” Luke shouted as soon as they’d opened the doors to the dining hall.

“You’re just adding to the noise, Luke…”

“What did you say?! I can’t hear you!”

“Never mind.” Roderick sighed and looked around. “Maybe some of the others might leave the tables since we did arrive pretty late. Shall we go get our trays first, and then deal with seating?”

“Sounds good…” Katarina gave Kris a nudge. “Er, Kris? Are you… alright?”

“Oh, I’m better than fine.”

They followed his gaze to where he was staring intensely at the dishes of food being served, practically salivating. Katarina had to hide her laughter behind a cough. “I – I see. Yes, let’s go line up, then – I’m rather famished myself, and it does smell – rather good…”

Luke tried to make ‘small talk’ with one of the female squires in the line in front of him and was turned down with a sceptical side-glance and complete silence. Two people cut in the line in front of Ryan twice before Kris told them off (perhaps they were intimidated by the fact Kris still had his sword on him, Katarina mused) and ended up sandwiching Ryan in between himself and Roderick in the line so people would stop ‘bullying’ the shorter boy.

Finding a table wasn’t too hard at that point. A couple of tables had already emptied out by the time they were able to sit down. Kris wasn’t particularly picky on where they sat, so he immediately just went for the nearest table and started devouring his dinner before the others even had a chance to sit down.

“Uhh… wow.” Ryan mumbled, because there really wasn’t much else to say. Luke laughed and plopped down across Kris, letting his tray clatter carelessly to the table and spilling some of the soup onto the table. “You’re eating like you skipped both breakfast and lunch!”

Kris paused for just a second to stare at Luke.

“Uh. You did eat today, did you?”

Katarina chuckled softly and sat down next to Kris. “He did – at least, I was with him during lunch. I mean, I can’t really blame him, since the food here is better than I’ve ever had before…”

“Really?” Luke shot her an incredulous look.

“It sure doesn’t seem like that though, Katarina.” Kris gave her a nudge with his elbow. “I mean, you’ve hardly even started! If the food’s that much better, then you should eat faster!”

Roderick winced at the soup trickling down Kris’s chin. “Manners, please…”

“E-er, and I don’t think that’s how it works, either.” Ryan mumbled, after nibbling on the edge of a potato speared on the end of a fork.

“What’s how what works?”

“Um, never mind…”

“Anyway,” Roderick interrupted, before Kris could open his mouth again, “It’s good we’re all getting along, especially since it’ll be necessary when we start working together as a platoon…”

“Huh, now that you mention it… we are getting along quite well, even though we only just met today. Er, asides from Luke and Roderick.” Katarina pondered. “I – I think we’re quite lucky! I’m glad I’m in a platoon with you guys…”

“Strange. It feels like we’ve known each other for longer.” Kris remarked, finally finishing his bowl and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, much to Roderick’s dismay. “You know, Grandfather really was right about how ‘sparring with someone is the best way to get to know them’.”

“Or maybe all the exercise we did just made the whole day last forever…” Ryan mumbled.

“Or it was fate – that you all would meet the Legendary Luke here like this!”

“No.” Roderick said flatly.

Katarina giggled softly to herself under her breath. “Well… whatever it may be, I’m… just really glad to have such trust – trustworthy team members…”

“Huh? What did you say, Katarina?”

“Oh, don’t mind me.” Katarina waved a hand and glanced at Kris’s tray. “Are you… already done?”

“I’m going to get a second serving. They do that here, right?”

“Y-you’re eating more?!” Ryan squeaked.

“Well, yeah. You need food to give you energy to train tomorrow – hey, Ryan, do you want me to get a second serving for you, too? It looks like–”

“No, I’m fine!”

Katarina chuckled at their antics, at least until Kris called back “Katarina, I’ll get you another serving too! You’re going to need it–”

It was her turn to leap out of her chair to hurry after him. “W-wait, Kris, it’s alright, I don’t need…!”

“What an eventful day.” Roderick remarked, the three of them watching them go. “While our platoon may be slightly eccentric, I do think we have quite a good chance to passing the tests and reaching knighthood.”

“Aw, quit it with that for now, will you?” Luke poked him. “We just got here! You’ve always been on about wanting to become a knight back home, and now we’re here – at least take some time to loosen up and have some fun! You know, I could totally introduce you to a girl–”

“What–?! That’s not–” Roderick took a moment to compose himself, then exhaled. “Look, the fact we’re here, training to be knights, means that we have to work twice as hard. This is no place to slack off, and no, I don’t need any of your – attempted philandering…”

Ryan’s forehead was creased into an expression of worry, and he let out a shaky sigh. “I – I really hope we can succeed. I… I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t become a knight – oh, Brother would be so disappointed…!”

“Hey! What did I just hear?!”

Ryan’s strangled shriek abruptly cut off as Kris suddenly reappeared again over his shoulder with a fresh tray of food. Kris slammed it down on the table, causing Ryan to jump again.

“While I’m here, you needn’t worry about such things like that!” Kris declared, pointing his fork at Ryan. “As your commander, I swear it – I’ll get all of you to knighthood, on my honour as – uh, on my honour, no matter what!”

“Even you, Katarina.” He turned, eyes flickering with a newfound determination. “Whether as strategist or knight, I wouldn’t let them deny you your rightful space as a knight alongside all of us, when the time comes. I swear it.”

“Uh… ah, I…” Katarina blinked, clearly overwhelmed by Kris’s sudden proclamation. Thankfully, Luke cut in for her. “Heh, sounds good! I knew you’d make quite the commander, Kris!”

“Really?” Kris chuckled, sinking back into his chair and all tension seeming to leave him. “Phew, I was worried that’d sound off. I was just thinking about the fact you guys all chose me to be leader, out of, well, all of you, so… it’s my job to be encouraging or something like that, right?”

“Well, not exactly that, but…” Roderick finally seemed to have gotten over his own surprise, and smiled at Kris. “I think we have quite a good chance at being successful, especially with your enthusiasm.”

“Um, b-but was shouting really necessary?” Ryan mumbled, rubbing at his ear.

“It’s just his way of boosting our spirits, I think,” Katarina replied, a small smile crossing her face. “I… I think it’s working, personally…”

“I’m feeling rather good about tomorrow’s training,” Luke beamed. “We’ll show those dusty old knights that we’ll be one of the best platoons there are! –ow, Roderick, what was that for?!”

“You still need to respect the senior knights.” Roderick scolded, sighing. “And I nearly thought you had suddenly decided to become more sensible…”

“And, er, saying that might not be the best idea.” Katarina added, looking around nervously. “You do realise this entire dining hall is basically full of the other squires, right?”

“Pft, so what? It doesn’t change the fact that our platoon–”

“That’s it, we’re going back first.” Roderick abruptly stood up, grabbing Luke by the ear. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning. Goodnight.”

“Ow, ouch – I haven’t finished my soup yet, Rody, ow, that hurts, let go of me–!”

The three other squires watched Roderick drag Luke out of the dining hall and the doors swing shut behind them. Then Katarina glanced around and realised there were several other squires still staring at them, and definitely not in a nice way.

“Goodnight…” Ryan said meekly, rising from his chair too. “I think I’ll go back to our room too…”

“Hey, wait, Ryan, you’ve hardly even touched your dinner – you’ve got to eat more than just that–!”

“I’m full, you can have it if you want – s-see you tomorrow, Katarina!” Ryan fled before Kris could say anything else.

“…well,” Katarina said quietly, trying not to notice the several eyes that were now on them. “Hopefully… er, hopefully Luke doesn’t anger any more of the other squires while he’s out there.”

Kris sighed. “Yeah, I hope so.” Apparently oblivious to the fact people were probably glaring at them out of the side of their eyes, he shrugged and pulled over Ryan’s tray. “Well, if he insists…”

-x-x-x-

“Goodnight, Katarina.” Kris called, sending her a quick wave before closing his room’s door behind himself. Ryan spared him a timid glance from where he was sitting on the edge of his bed in loose-fitting sleepwear that looked twice his size, and then went back to trying to dry his hair by ruffling it with a towel.

“There are baths here?” He asked.

“…yes?” Ryan said uncertainly. “Why wouldn’t there be…?”

“Ah, wait, right – I completely forgot to read those rules Roderick told me to read. Ah, well, I’ll do that tomorrow.” Kris looked around the room and spotted the clothes he had recently purchased in a pile on his mattress. “You know where the baths are?”

“Er, walk to the end of the corridor – the other end, not the way we usually come from, and turn left. And then walk down there and it’s at the end…”

“Alright, thanks. See you later.”

Ryan exhaled in relief as the candle at his bedside flickered but continued burning as Kris left the room. Then the door suddenly swung open, putting his candle out with a gust of wind.

“Hey – whoa, it’s dark in here! Didn’t you light a candle from one of the torches outside?” Luke’s voice came from the silhouette standing in his doorway.

“I–I did…” Stifling a shiver, Ryan felt around on his desk for his candle. Thankfully, Luke stepped away from the doorway, allowing Ryan to find it through the shaft of light coming in through the crack between the door. He lifted it and rose to his feet. “W-what is it?”

Luke stepped into the room, squinting through the darkness. “I lost my sword, and I thought I might’ve left it here…”

Ryan slipped outside to relight his candle on one of the magically lit sconces just outside their room on the wall. By the time he returned, Luke had something in his hand. “I think I found it–! Oh, wait, this isn’t mine…”

“Um, is it… that one?” Ryan moved the door and held the flickering light of his candle before himself. Luke’s eyes lit up and he grabbed the sword leaning against the wall just behind the door. “Ah, there it is! Thank Naga I didn’t lose it, otherwise Roderick would’ve had my head…”

“Ah, it is!” He suddenly turned. “Roderick said that we should meet in the dining hall for breakfast, about an hour before our training session, so we have time to prepare. And he said to make sure to tell Kris.”

Luke disappeared back out the doorway without waiting for a response. Ryan sighed and sat back down on his bed again, setting his candle down on the desk and reaching for the towel.

The door swung back open again, putting his candle out with another gust of wind. “And I nearly forgot! –oh, wait, it’s dark again…”

“Please…”

“Well, anyway, training’s at eight thirty in the morning, or something like that. I think that’s all Rody told me to say – yeah, see you tomorrow, kid!”

The door slammed shut again, leaving Ryan in complete darkness.

“Oh… oh dear.” Ryan said to himself. With a sigh, he reached out and began feeling around for his candle on his desk again.

“Ow–!” He jerked his finger back and sucked on the newfound burn on his finger from touching the – what he presumed to be – hot wax on the side of his candle. “Ow…”

_I hope I can still draw back my bow tomorrow. Oh no, and tomorrow – we’ll have to see Sir Jagen again or something… he’s scary._

Ryan debated going to light his candle again, but decided there was ultimately no point. _Since the light’s out anyway, I might as well just go to bed…_ With a sigh, he felt around on his bed for the linen bed streets that he’d strewn on the other end, then curled up and stared at the wall through the dim light that was trickling through beneath the door.

The door suddenly opened, blinding him temporarily.

“Oh – oh, sorry, I didn’t realise you were sleeping.” Kris said.

Ryan yawned at the mention of sleep, and only nodded wordlessly in response before turning over.

“I’ll be quiet,” Kris whispered, “Don’t mind me…”

“Oh… um, Luke told me to tell you that we’re going to the dining hall at seven thirty to meet up.” Ryan said, rolling back over to squint at Kris through the light coming from the door. “…and that our training is at eight thirty.”

“I saw already on the bulletin board, but thanks, Ryan.” Kris replied. “I’ll keep that in mind. Uh, do you mind if I leave the door open…?”

Ryan let out a confirmative mumble in response and turned back over.

“Alright, then. Uh, thanks. Goodnight, Ryan.”

“Goodnight, Kris.” He managed to make out in reply, finally closing his eyes and pulling the sheets over his head to drift off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A preliminary assessment against Caeda goes about as well as you'd expect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually had about two thirds of this written back then when I'd first published Chapter 3, and found the motivation to finish it off after rereading this recently. Even though it's kind of silly and meaningless in terms of plot, and the writing is nowhere near good; there were some moments I'd written back then that I did find amusing, and I'm fond of writing lighthearted little things.
> 
> Even though I have no idea where any of this is going to lead, I wanted to try continue it anyway. Of course, there is no posting schedule so I could end up writing the next chapter in three days or three months, but we'll see how it goes... (But I like having this story as a 'backburner' project with no expectations in terms of 'good writing' – it's just a silly, fun little novelisation/slice of life fic about the Seventh Platoon that I enjoy writing! It might be boring to some people, but... I like writing it, so why not?)

Unfortunately, despite his attempts to get comfortable, Kris found himself turning over several times in the night. At what must’ve been the crack of dawn, he finally gave up, got out of bed and stared enviously at Ryan, who seemed to be having the most comfortable sleep of his life.

Then he somehow woke up to somebody shaking his arm. “Kris! Kris… we should probably get ready to meet them. It’s almost time for us to get to the dining hall…”

“Huh?” He said very eloquently, blinking the sleep out of his eyes and lifting his head. _I don’t remember going back to sleep again…_

Ryan had moved to the other side of the room in the time Kris’s vision finally cleared. “We have about twenty minutes to get ready,” he repeated, “Kris, you should probably wake up…”

Kris sighed and chucked his sheets over to the other side, swinging his legs off the side and standing up. “I’m awake, I’m awake…”

Ryan was already fully dressed and appeared to be fretting over his bed. Kris shuffled over while rubbing his eyes. “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t fold my sheets properly,” Ryan mumbled dejectedly, unrolling the misshapen lump of linen. “I mean, back home Mother used to help me, but now I can’t get them to look right no matter what I do…”

“Does it matter?”

“W-well, I’m sure all the knights’ rooms surely aren’t as messy, and – oh no, what if Sir Jagen checks? Then he’ll know I can’t…”

“Why would he check?” Kris paused for a moment to squint at Ryan. “Besides, I’m not going to fold them. That takes too much time. What’s the point if you’re just going to get back into bed again?”

“Um…” As Ryan took a long moment to ponder this, Kris deemed the conversation over and started walking towards the door while pulling his shirt through one arm. “You can go to the dining hall first if you want. I’m going to freshen up.”

“O-okay…”

Kris stifled a yawn and left the room. _Alright, which way was it – left or right…?_

The door opposite his abruptly swung open, and the next thing he knew, he was on the floor.

“Oh – whoops, my apologies, Kris!” A loud voice hollered.

“It’s alright, Luke…” Kris sighed as he stood up, brushing himself off. Then he remembered that he still hadn’t put on the other shirt sleeve and pulled that on, too.

“Roderick’s been on my tail trying to get me to get ready earlier. Man, I’m sure glad that I’m not the only one who doesn’t think that you have to be in full armour as soon as you get out of bed.” Luke joked.

“Uh… sure.” Kris said, not quite sure how to respond. Stifling a yawn, he started walking–

“Oi, where're you going? Bathrooms are the other way.”

“…oh.” Kris smiled sheepishly and reversed direction. At least, he tried to smile, but it must’ve looked more like a grimace, because Luke made a face. “Wow, thanks man, just trying to help. Well, never mind about that – we’d better get going before Roderick starts yelling at the both of us, huh?”

He nodded, still blinking the sleep out of his eyes, and deemed it best to follow Luke, lest he get lost before the day even started.

-x-x-x-

Katarina had been waiting outside Kris’s room when he returned from the bathrooms, and accompanied Kris and Luke to the dining hall. The dining hall was already full of excited squires, and after quite a few long moments of searching, they found the two other squires already eating at a table in the corner.

“Mornin’! Our first training session of the day, huh? I wonder who’ll be there – Sir Jagen again, perhaps? Though I’m not, you know, that excited to see him again… Oh, hey, Kris, did he tell you yesterday?”

“Who?”

“Sir Jagen. You spoke with him, right? Did he say anything else about today’s training?”

“Uh… no, not that I remember.”

“We’ll find out once we get there.” Roderick said.

“Aw, but I wanna know now!”

“Luke, patience is a virtue.”

“Hm, who do you think it’ll be, Katarina?” Luke asked, completely ignoring the other cavalier. Roderick opened his mouth to point that out, but apparently decided otherwise and simply sighed, going back to his breakfast.

“H-huh? Me? Er… I’m not sure.” She mumbled, staring down into her plate of scrambled eggs.

“Aw, c’mon, take a guess!”

“Well… Brother told me yesterday that it was likely going to be either Sir Jagen, or Sir Cain…” Ryan said.

“The Bull?” Luke took a moment to ponder the decision. “Wait, just Sir Cain? Where’s the Panther? Aren’t they usually a duo?”

“I-it’s probably best not to mention it…” Ryan’s next words were little more than a whisper, but Luke turned towards him anyway. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“It – it’s… it’s just not something you should talk about around Sir Cain.” Ryan said quietly. “B-but if you really must know… Brother said that he left the Altean knights for some reason or another. I’m not quite sure what, but… it’s probably not our place to ask about it.”

“Huh.” Luke tapped his chin, then shrugged. “Alright then.”

“W-well!” Katarina exclaimed, bringing attention away from the topic at hand. “Er… Kris, is there something you want to say as commander, er, in preparation for our first training session as a platoon?”

“Huh?” Kris froze mid-chew of his eggs and slowly turned to where the others were staring at him expectantly. He swallowed quickly and blinked. “Uh… what exactly am I meant to do as commander, again?”

“Give us our orders,” Roderick replied, “And guide us to victory, I’d hope.”

“O-oh, and… if you need help with strategies, er, I can help!”

“Oh, yeah, about that.” Kris turned to Katarina. “You haven’t told Sir Jagen about your decision yet, huh?”

“Huh…? O-oh! Oh, no, I haven’t…”

“I’m sorry, what decision are you talking about?”

“Oh…” Katarina mumbled, glancing up at the others nervously. “I… I was going to ask Sir Jagen about officially training to become a strategist instead of participating in combat, but I haven’t actually gotten around to that yet…”

“Huh. You can do that?” Luke said, surprise lacing his tone. “Eh, whatever – I mean, someone’s got to strategise, right? And it won’t be me, so I think it’s a pretty good idea!”

“But that decision depends on the senior knights, though, so you’ll have to ask them, it seems.” Roderick said, turning to Katarina. “I don’t think any of us would mind.”

“I certainly wouldn’t,” Kris chuckled bashfully, “I mean, I could use the help with strategy after all…”

“I–I might ask him later, in that case…”

“Right… well, for our training, uh, I’ll do my best to do what he said!” Kris inclined his head at Roderick. “You know, guide everyone to victory and such – I did promise to get everyone to knighthood, so we’d better started now!”

“Wise words, Kris!” Luke proclaimed, slapping him on the back.

“Heh, uh, thanks… can I get back to breakfast now?”

“…sure.”

With that settled, Kris eagerly dove back into his meal.

“We’ll head off to the battlefield soon; better early than late, especially since this will be our instructor’s first impressions of us as a platoon.” Roderick said, glancing at Kris. “Whenever you’re… done.”

Kris let out a muffled noise in response around a mouthful of eggs. Roderick coughed pointedly and turned his gaze away. “…we still have some time though, so there’s no need to rush and… accidentally choke on your food.”

“Mhm.” Kris swallowed and waved a hand. “You guys can head off first if you want – I’ll be done in just a moment…”

“There really isn’t any need to rush,” Katarina said quietly, trying not to stare as he inhaled the rest of the eggs on his plate. “…or, er, well, I guess you’re done.”

“Let’s go!” Luke leaped out of his chair and spun around. “The sooner I show the senior knights and the lovely ladies the splendour of the Legendary Luke, the better! To the battlefield!”

“Er, Luke, you should probably put away your own tray…”

“Huh? I have to do that?”

“Everyone else is…” Ryan mumbled.

“…eh, alright, fine – everyone will see the splendour of the Legendary Luke after this!” He picked up his tray and promptly knocked his empty bowl onto the floor. “Aw, darn…”

“There really is no need to rush…” Katarina repeated, but Luke had already picked up his fallen bowl and sprinted off. “Ah… never mind.”

“At least he’s enthusiastic…” Ryan glanced off to the opposite side. “But I’m pretty sure we’re meant to put our dirty dishes away at the table over there.”

“I don’t blame him; being able to spar against new opponents is exhilarating!” Kris said brightly.

“I… don’t think that’s what he’s eager for.” Roderick replied, stifling a sigh. “Either way, we’d better head off to the battlefield now we’re all ready. Let’s go.”

-x-x-x-

Jagen cleared his throat. “The Seventh Platoon and its commander, Kris, are all present and accounted for, yes?”

They all nodded wordlessly in response. Even the previously carefree Luke was standing as stiff as a rod as the veteran knight surveyed their group with critical eye.

“From today forth, you will train together as a team in your bid to become fully fledged knights.” He said, voice unchanged. “The first half of your training will focus on developing your practical skills. Without further ado, I will introduce the senior knight who is to be your instructor.”

Jagen inclined his head at the red-armoured knight that stood next to him.

“I am Cain, the knight in charge of your practical training!”

Kris tried to force down the urge to rub at his ringing ears, and focus on paying attention to what Cain was saying instead of how _loud_ he was.

“To hone your practical skills, we will have a contest, in the form of combat. This will be the real thing – we will be using actual weapons, and not the wooden training weapons we had for the initial tests. If you let your guard down…”

Cain’s eyes narrowed. “You should consider yourself lucky if you’re able to walk home at all.”

This earned a shiver from Katarina, who was standing shoulder-to-shoulder – er, her shoulder to his arm – with Kris. He nudged her arm as reassuringly as possible – the best he could do without drawing attention to himself.

“Even amongst the Altean knights, Cain is one of our strongest men. You must all work hard to earn his approval.” Jagen said. He glanced at Cain. “I will leave this platoon to you.”

“Understood, sir.” Cain turned to the group. “Come! We have arranged for the test to take place elsewhere, where your ability to utilise your terrain wisely will be judged alongside your combat.” The knight’s eyes landed on Kris, and he glanced at the sheet of paper he was holding. “Your commander… Which one of you is Kris?”

“That’s, uh, me.” Kris said.

Cain glanced at his paper again, then back to Kris. “I see. Very well – I will be judging your ability to lead as well, so make your decisions carefully. Now, Seventh Platoon – follow me!”

They hurriedly marched after the senior knight.

“A contest already, huh?” Luke said under his breath. Kris spared him a glance as he tried to keep up with Cain’s long strides. “What about it?”

“They’re already measuring us up to the other platoons… alright, Kris! This means you have to make sure to win so we come out top!”

“You mean _we_ have to make sure that we win,” Roderick said dryly, apparently having overheard their conversation. “We work together as a time. If we win or lose – it’ll be on us, whatever the outcome.”

“But Kris the Ordinary here is giving us our orders, so it’s pretty much on him!”

“Well…” Kris frowned. “I… I’m not really practiced with leading a group of people, you know – I’ve only ever trained to…”

“I–I’m sure you can do it!” Ryan piped up. “You… you were a good leader yesterday! I mean, better than I would – I know I wouldn’t be able to lead a platoon at all…”

“We believe in you, Kris!” Katarina added, smiling nervously at him. “Besides, as long as we all do our best… we can’t lose!”

_I… I really would think otherwise, based on my ‘tactical decisions’ yesterday… but they do believe in me. Alright, that’s it – I’ll spend today putting more thought into my strategy. I won’t disappoint my platoon!_

“You’re right.” He said. “Katarina, Ryan, everyone – I’ll do my best to be the best commander I can be, and lead our platoon to victory!”

“Sounds good!” Luke exclaimed.

“We’ll be relying on you, then.” Roderick said.

Kris opened his mouth to say something, but nearly ran face-first into Cain’s back as the senior knight abruptly drew to a stop. Thankfully, Cain didn’t notice, and he turned around to address the Seventh Platoon.

“Well then, let’s begin today’s training!”

Kris spared a glance around himself. The first thing he noticed were the trees; there was a forest in front of them full of thick greenery, and to their left and right were two buildings – newly built, by the looks of the unblemished brick.

Cain continued to speak as they surveyed the land around them. “Your enemies will consist of us Altean knights; brave warriors who I am proud to call friends. And we also have someone who volunteered to help us judge the potential of our new recruits…”

As if summoned by his voice (actually, now that he was thinking about it, probably so), the sound of wingbeats filled the air. Kris looked up and his eyes were immediately drawn to the snow-white pegasus circling through the air, its rider no more than a silhouette on its back, as it came to touch down on the ground directly next to Cain with graceful precision.

“A pleasure to meet you all.” The pegasus rider smiled. Her long blue hair fluttered in the wind that had been picked up by her landing, and the stray feathers falling from her pegasus’s wings surrounded her in almost a snowy, angelic veil.

“Oh, it’s Princess Caeda!” Katarina whispered, pulling Kris’s thoughts right out of his head. “She’s so pretty… I feel nervous at the thought of fighting her – in fact, is it, er, wrong for us to be fighting her? She’s Prince Marth’s fiancee – I don’t think…”

“You needn’t hold back against fighting me.” Caeda said, apparently having caught wind of their conversation. Katarina flushed with embarrassment as the blue-haired woman turned towards them with a pleasant smile. “On the battlefield, I am just another opponent for you for Cain to judge your abilities against – so try your hardest.”

The pegasus flapped its wings, causing the wind to pick up again. “I’ll be waiting – I am eager to see the potential of Altea’s newest volunteers for myself!” With that note, her pegasus took to the sky again with a nicker and a flurry of white feathers, and soared towards the forest in front of them, dipping down beneath the trees and out of sight.

Cain cleared his throat. “Very well. As you can see, your opponent will be Princess Caeda, a pegasus knight. She has volunteered to help test your abilities against a variety of opponents.”

Cain gestured at the base of a tree, where there were several weapons laid out in the shade. “If you do not have your own weapons already, pick them up here. They are the standard iron weapons we use in the army, so you will have to get used to using them. Though if you do get injured… we have vulernaries and clerics on hand to support you after the battle or if you choose to surrender, though this will mean that you cannot participate in the battle afterwards. I will be waiting and watching from afar. Prepare yourselves!”

He raised his voice. “Your battle starts now!”

Katarina swallowed nervously and hurried out to the weapon pile at once. She returned – to Kris’s surprise, with an iron sword, rather than a lance as she had used previously.

“You…?”

Katarina tightened her grip around her sword. “If I’m going to start learning how to use a sword, or at least the basic techniques; I should start practicing now.” She said, cheeks reddening under the gleam of the sun. “Also, I… I’d like to try learn from you, Kris.”

“Alright, that’s great and all,” Luke interjected, unsheathing his sword and grinning fiercely. “But let’s get on with this! I bet our opponents are hidden in the forest…”

“The first move is on us, it seems.” Roderick said. “Kris, your orders?”

“Uh…” Kris scanned the area. The two forts caught his eye at once. “Right, forts… uh, should we use them?”

“W-we’re your soldiers here, Kris.” Katarina said. “The decision is up to you, since you’re our commander, but…” She spared a glance towards where Cain was standing, then lowered her voice. “The forts would be helpful if we want to fight defensively.”

“Defensively? Well…” Kris racked his brain. _So we’re fighting in a team… think, Kris. What would benefit us if we have to fight together? No, actually, wait – I need to consider my team first…_

“Oi, Kris, think a little faster!”

“I’m trying!” He protested, then released a deep exhale and did his best to focus again. _So… we have to defend Ryan, because he can’t get a shot on enemies up close. If we maybe form a defensive ring around him, then… huh, that might actually work. Is this… strategising?_

He cleared his throat, swallowing the faint spark of pride welling up in him at his plan. “Alright! I have a plan.”

“Spit it out, then!” Luke called.

“We should stay together as a team, right?” Kris began, glancing over at Roderick for approval, “And Ryan, if you go into the fort here while the rest of us guard the entrance, then we can take out our enemies as they come, right?”

“It’s… a good plan,” Katarina said, “Er, but, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to…”

“You need not worry, Katarina! For I, the Legendary Luke, will defend you if you–”

“Um, actually, never mind, it’s okay…”

“Let’s get on with this plan before our enemies approach.” Roderick said, spurring his horse towards the fort. Ryan nodded, fingers tight around his bow as he scurried after the cavalier.

Almost as soon as they’d managed to get themselves into place around the fort, the sound of a horn rang clear and loud over the battlefield.

“It must be a signal…” Katarina murmured.

“For what?”

“Alright! Here they come!” Luke declared, promptly cutting their hushed conversation off. His horse reared, earning a terrified squeak from Ryan behind.

“Hold, Luke – we wait for Kris’s orders.” Roderick warned.

“Uh, me?” Kris blinked. “Oh, right, that’s my job…” His muscles itched to launch him straight into combat, especially with the gleam of the sun on the iron blade of the incoming axe-wielder in his peripheral vision, but he tried to concentrate. “So–”

“Behind you!”

“Ah–!” Kris only managed to lift his sword just in time to block the enemy’s blade from sinking into his shoulder. He twisted around and, setting his feet into the dirt, shoved the armoured figure back.

“Where did he even come from–?”

“Kris, we need orders!” Katarina urged.

“Ah, uh,” Kris spared another glance at where the axe-wielding knight he had previously been focused on was. “Someone – Rodeirck, wait, no, actually, Luke, you should – and Ryan, get behind–”

The sword-wielding knight made another swing at him again, interrupting his rapid-fire rambling and scoring a shallow gash through his unarmored shoulder as he stumbled back, nearly falling on top of Katarina.“Ugh–!”

“W-wait, who do I stand behind?” Ryan asked, his voice dissolving into a yelp as the other advancing knight made a swing with their axe.

Luke apparently took Kris’s disjointed mutterings as _something_ and charged at the knight threatening Ryan. Screaming something unintelligible and lifting his sword in his right hand, he made a wild swing from the back of his horse. The strength behind his blow would’ve probably been enough to knock the axe clean out of their opponent’s grip, but it missed. Luke went barrelling past, still screeching.

Roderick immediately went to block the axe-wielding knight that Luke had missed from attacking Ryan. Kris, too distracted with trying to formulate his thoughts into words, only just managed to avoid the blade whistling towards him again by falling ungracefully on his rear.

However, instead of going after him, the soldier turned towards…

_Katarina–!_

Kris rolled over and leaped to his feet through finding some newfound adrenaline. With a battle-cry, he attacked in an almost vicious rage, the air being cut in two with each forceful swing and slash until he knocked his opponent’s sword out of their hands with a twist of his blade – one of the first steps his grandfather had taught him – and pointed his sword at their throat.

They raised their hands in surrender.

He released a sigh of relief, but was pulled from his moment of repose by Katarina rapidly shaking his arm. “Kris? Kris!”

“H-huh?”

“The others…!”

Kris looked up and was temporarily stunned into silence by the disaster that lay before him. First of all, they had split up: Ryan practically had his back against the wall of the fort with Roderick only just managing to stand his ground in front of him against the axe-wielding knight from before, and there was another soldier with an axe that Luke was trying to fend off from his vantage point on the back of his horse.

“W-we need orders!” Katarina said in a single breath.

“Uh – uh, okay,” Kris acknowledged, though his head was already spinning from trying to simply absorb what was happening in front of him. “Roderick!” He shouted.

“What?!” Roderick shouted back past trying to deflect an axe with the shaft of his lance.

The axe sank into the wooden shaft of the lance and nearly cleaved it in two.

Kris gave up on trying to construct his muddled thoughts into words and let action take over. He surged forwards, switching his grip into a two-handed one and yelling at the top of his lungs as he brought it whistling down at where the knight menacing Roderick and Ryan was – well, used to be. The knight dodged his strike – probably because he heard Kris’s yelling – and swung his axe.

Kris evaded the heavy blow with a sidestep, letting the iron blade whistle past. Roderick took the lull in between to thrust his lance at the enemy’s breastplate – not breaking skin but dealing a solid blow that knocked the air from their lungs.

An arrow hitting them in the right arm caused their axe to drop to the ground before they could lift it again. Ryan, who had finally managed to get a reasonable distance away, lowered his bow and glanced at them.

Their moment of victory was interrupted by a yell. “Gotta love the – ow, ow–!”

Roderick wheeled his horse around. “Luke!” He called, spurring his horse towards the blue-clad cavalier.

“After them!” Kris shouted.

“Ah, Kris–!” Katarina grabbed his arm. “Up there–!”

“P-princess Caeda!” Ryan yelped. Indeed, the blue-haired princess – hardly more than a silhouette on her snow-white pegasus’s massive frame – was circling around down above where Luke was clashing with the axe-wielding knight.

Katarina narrowed her eyes and, raising her voice – surprising Kris in the process – she turned to Ryan and ordered: “Archers are good against pegasi. Ryan, use your arrows to drive her off! Don’t let her overwhelm us!”

“U-understood!”

“Kris, she’s wielding an iron lance. It’ll be hard to get the advantage with our swords, s-so – so you should get Roderick to try disarm her with his lance, since lances have a better reach. You should switch positions with Roderick because swords are better against axes…”

“Alright, got it–!” Swallowing his initial shock at Katarina’s sudden bout of assertiveness, Kris sprinted across the final stretch of battlefield. From the corner of his eye, he could see arrows cutting through the sky, and the winged shadow across the grass in front of him veered sharply off to the left.

“Roderick, aim for Princess Caeda!” He shouted, just as he was about in arm’s reach. “I’ll take over for you!”

Without even questioning him, the brunette cavalier abruptly veered off. Kris slotted himself in the space Roderick had abandoned with a fierce yell and a swing of his sword, driving the axe-wielding soldier back.

“Heh – you finally showed up, huh?” Luke said breathlessly. Kris spared him a glance; the green-haired cavalier’s horse was nowhere to be seen, and there was a rather nasty gash across his leg that was seeping blood into the dark fabric of his trousers. Even so, there was a fierce grin stretched across his face and his grip on his sword didn’t falter. “Have you figured out you’re terrible at giving orders?”

“You ran off yourself–!”

“At your orders, Kris the Ordinary!” Luke barked out a short laugh as he lunged, bringing his sword down in a mighty arc that clanged against their enemy’s helmet and knocked them flat to the ground.

Kris ignored him – for the time being – and spun around to face their final enemy. Caeda was darting impossibly quickly through the blue sky above, her pegasus twisting and turning to almost effortlessly avoid the arrows Ryan sent flying after her.

“Watch out!” Katarina suddenly yelled.

“Scatter–!”

Kris and Luke split up. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw a green blur and someone come barreling towards where Caeda had dived down on her pegasus. Twin lances met in a screech of metal, and heavy wingbeats filled the air as Caeda’s pegasus tried to pull itself back into the air again.

Luke regained his footing and leaped at Caeda from the other side, blade sweeping through the air.

Caeda’s pegasus fought to back away into the relative safety of the sky again. However, this time, with no momentum, it was taking a significantly longer time; and the window of opportunity swung open.

Kris charged, lengthening his strides, preparing to leap; “Luke, duck!” He shouted in the final second, muscles tensing and coiling and his sword lifted above his head.

“Huh?” Luke glanced over. Kris’s strides wavered and his moment of hesitation was his undoing.

A huge shadow fell over them as the pegasus unfurled its wings. Kris’s vision was plummeted in darkness; then something hard and heavy drove straight into his chest like a battering ram and he felt himself hit the ground in a heap.

In the few seconds – or maybe it was minutes, it was hard to tell with a spinning head and double vision – it took him to try to sit up and blink the bleariness out of his vision, there was a terrified whinny and he saw someone else hit the floor in what must’ve been a painful tangle of limbs.

“Hey, man, don’t go dying on me here!” Luke’s voice was way too loud in Kris’s right ear, and he groaned and tried to wave his hand in some sort of gesture for Luke to be quiet.

Instead, through blurry vision, he saw Caeda descend upon the battlefield with in a veil of blindingly white feathers. The brightness of everything hurt his eyes, and he closed them for a second as he tried to regain his bearings.

The next-or-so thing he knew, there was someone tipping a cold, bitter vulnerary down his throat. He gagged and coughed, limbs twitching as the ache in his chest subsided to something that was little more than a thrumming ache.

“Oh dear, I didn’t mean for her to kick you like that in her take-off. Are you alright?” Somebody said, their voice kind and full of concern.

“Huh?” Kris said ever-so-eloquently, blinking slowly as the blinding light in his vision faded away to a figure standing over him and a dazzling blue sky.

“I truly do apologise – ah, I haven’t asked your name…”

“Kris… his name’s Kris.” Someone else said. “He’s our commander.”

_Wait, I recognise that voice…_

“Katarina?” He said, his tongue feeling oddly thick and heavy in his mouth.

“He’s alive – look, see? He’s fine! No need to dote on him anymore, Your Highness.” He was roughly grabbed by the shoulders and propped up.

Kris groaned and blinked, moving his hand up to try rub the dark spots from his eyes. “Ugh… what happened?”

“You were running at Caeda’s pegasus with your sword above your head, then her pegasus lifted off and accidentally kicked you two…”

“Two…?”

“Rody! You good?” Luke shouted as he rose to his feet, as if in response to Kris’s unspoken question. Kris winced and covered his ears again, but as he turned his head to look for the other cavalier, a pang of guilt settled in his chest – _This… all of this mess… was because of me?_

Then another thought struck him and he blurted out “Is the battle over?”

Katarina averted her eyes. “It seems so, yes.”

“Oh… oh no.” Kris buried his head in his hands. “We failed, didn’t we? This has to be a failure, I – I got everyone hurt and we didn’t even land a hit on–”

“I–I’m sorry!” That was Ryan’s voice – this time, from somewhere behind Kris. “I – I’m sorry I didn’t do better… I – I should’ve – none of this would’ve happened if I’d…!”

“At peace, squires,” Caeda said kindly, “You did your best. It’s over now – you don’t have to worry about it anymore…”

Ryan still looked outright miserable. Kris couldn’t blame him; he felt the same too. “B-but, it’s… if I’d even… we’re all going to be kicked out because–!”

“Now, now – are you saying that what I’m saying is wrong?”

Ryan’s distraught mumbling ended in a squeak. “N-no, I didn’t – I don’t mean to disrespect you, Your Highness–!”

Caeda’s mock serious expression dissolved into an amused smile. “I apologise for jesting. My, though – you all look so serious! Don’t beat yourselves up about what you thought you could have done. It is your first training session as squires here, after all, and we don’t expect you to be peerless warriors first try, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, would you?”

Ryan gulped and slowly shook his head – then nodded, then his brow furrowed in confusion and he stopped nodding.

“As long as you know where to improve based on today’s performance, then today’s training session wasn’t a failure.” Caeda offered the grim-faced squires a warm smile. “So please, keep your heads up! It pains me to see Altea’s future protectors so dour.”

Kris lowered his head and mumbled an apology. Though, before Caeda could scold him about continuing to look so grave, Luke came ambling back supporting a limping Roderick with his shoulder, temporarily diverting her attention.

Luke beamed at being centre of Caeda’s focus, apparently undeterred by the blood running down his leg from his wound and the weight of Roderick’s arm over his shoulder. “Your Highness! I don’t think we’ve properly introduced…”

“Not now, Luke.” Roderick ground out, voice strained. “This is – the princess – you’re speaking to…”

“Oh my – you don’t have to be so formal.” Caeda covered her mouth, amusement flickering through her gaze. “We did just engage in mock combat, and if possible, I would like to get to know Altea’s future protectors as fellow allies and friends, rather than as subordinates.”

The platoon shared nervous glances.

“Ah… right, I’d nearly forgotten. Vulneraries, you two?”

As the two cavaliers quietly fussed over the bottle, Cain’s booming voice came echoing across the battlefield.

“Is anyone dying at the present moment?”

The man himself came striding over the slope a moment later. It was hard to read his expression from afar, but the grave air about him was a sharp – but not unexpected – juxtaposition to Caeda’s kind words.

Kris tried to clamber to his feet to stand to attention, only for the ache in his chest to turn into a stabbing pain. He doubled over with a cough.

“Ah, here, the rest of the vulnerary…”

Cain came to a stop in front of them. Kris couldn’t help but shrink under his gaze (after choking the rest of the bitter vulnerary down).

“This is the Seventh Platoon, is it?” Cain looked down at the sheet of paper he was holding. “So… about your performance.”

“I–I’m sorry, sir!” Kris blurted out. “Don’t blame them – it’s my fault that this all went to… uh, that it ended like this – if my orders had been clearer, then…!”

Cain’s eyebrows shot up. Then he looked down at his paper, then back to Kris. “…well, since I had been planning to start with you… you’ve identified your own, main weakness, yes. That was my main concern with your platoon’s performance today: your teamwork was lacking and, yes, your orders could have been clearer, and your tactics could have been more thought out.”

Kris lowered his head in shame.

“Your positioning before the battle was… simplistic, but it could have been a possible strategy if you had been able to hold the line. And while your demonstration of teamwork was lacking, yes, I do commend your attempts.” Cain lifted his head, gaze flitting across the platoon standing before him. “Your efforts show great potential, and with the proper training and hard work, I believe your platoon will have high chances of being successful in your future endeavours.”

_Huh?_

“Of course, that is only a general overview of your platoon as a whole.” Cain continued, apparently unaware of Kris’s stupor. “Everyone has individual strengths and weaknesses, but we will aim to hone those and iron those out in future training sessions.”

Kris blinked. “Uh… so… we didn’t fail?”

“Fail?”

“The… test – wasn’t this a test or a contest of some sort…?”

Cain scoffed. “The only testing done here was my examination of your abilities now. Sure, we’ll rank you against other platoons, but that makes no difference to your chances at knighthood or not. All that matters is how hard you work during our training and whether you’ll be successful at it!”

“S-so… we’re not going to be thrown out because we – we lost?”

The senior knight squinted at Ryan, who squeaked and shrank away. “…no? If we did that to every squire, we’d have no potential knights. Did you walk in here expecting to _win_ against War of Shadows veterans?”

Luke opened his mouth. Roderick hissed something into his ear and the green-haired cavalier closed his mouth.

Satisfied with their lack of response – or assuming their lack of response to be a resounding ‘no’, Cain crossed his arms and addressed them all again. “If nobody’s lost a limb or is bleeding to death, then you’re all free to go. We’ll look at the rest of your problems and the things to be improved in tomorrow’s session. For today’s afternoon session, however, you’ll join up with a couple of other platoons to work on some basic skill and weapon technique.”

Caeda smiled at them as she trotted back over the slope, her pegasus now in tow. “And thank you for sparring with me today. I look forward to seeing you around the castle as well.”

“U-um… thank you, Sir Cain, Princess Caeda!” Katarina squeaked. The others followed suit, and they quickly turned and high-tailed it out of there before Cain could say anything more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never did get what Cain meant by "If you let your guard down, it won't be just an injury you'll be walking home with!" in the fan translation (Like... is he trying to imply that 'since you'll be dead!', or that kind of thing? I'm not too sure)
> 
> But here's where I get to twist around the plot in a way that isn't restricted by gameplay. For a start... you don't have to win all your battles, and here's where I do my best to showcase that Kris is not a brilliant tactician by any means. It might be going a bit far to call him a tactician at all, at least for now. (I'm... I haven't actually focused on developing the others, but maybe I should try think about that too... hm)


End file.
